Starbound
by TacticianLyra
Summary: In which a certain lion-shaped ship is in the wrong place at the right time, and sets off a chain of events no one could have predicted accurately, starting with a supposedly-dead space pilot crash-landing on Alwas. The Earth Team is about to get much more than they bargained for. *hiatus until my motivation comes back*
1. Fate's Machinations

Welcome and thank you for showing interest in my crazy impulse project that will probably end up being the longest fic I ever work on!

* * *

 **Arc I: Race's End**

 **Fate's Machinations**

The few moments of tense, worried breathlessness gave way to relieved jubilation when Eva saw the plume of yellow smoke, coinciding with a victorious whoop from Jordan. They'd scored their second win in the playoffs for the Pre-Selections. They'd move on to the next round. One step closer to the Ultimate Prize…whatever it was.

 _Any wish, any dream_.

That had a few implications by itself, but then again, Para-Dice had admitted to not even being twelve years old (at least in Wetanian years) yet. But that still made it worth wondering about.

She vaguely heard the race judges call out the final score—they'd won by _one point_ —before taking the cue to start back to their team's pit. "Jordan, how're your eyes?" she asked after they cleared the tunnel, remembering that he'd been a bit too late in turning off the infrared sensors the _Arrow_ had.

 _"Still feel like they're on fire, but other than that, fine,"_ was his answer while she turned the star-racer in place before setting it down. The first person to greet her when she climbed out of the back hatch was the team's first pilot, Rick, who smiled and gave a thumbs-up. As for the one she was looking for…

"Bravo Jordan!" their team manager praised, walking up to the team's gunner. "That was excellent shooting out there today! The race wouldn't have been won without you."

"I-It was nothing, sir," Jordan stuttered in response, momentarily glancing over at Eva. She clenched one fist slightly without really thinking about it.

One thing had become clear very quickly to her: this was not the Don Wei she remembered. The Don Wei she remembered was a kind man, completely different from the overly-strict team manager they had here on Alwas.

He _certainly_ would've recognized his own daughter…but he hadn't.

He hadn't, and a lapse in confidence on her part had ended with her inventing a false identity on the spot.

So to the team, she was Molly, and had been Molly for the past several days. A lot had happened in that time, from Rick's career-ending accident, to their first loss against Toros that ended with their secret weapon—the _Whizzing Arrow II_ 's hyperdrive—being put out of commission until Stan and Koji had time to get it replaced altogether.

She almost missed the stilted comment from Don that was directed at her, to which she replied with a simple "Thank you, sir," before going back into the _Arrow_ , this time to start on detaching her rocket-seat from the steering column, moving quickly so that she wouldn't get in either Stan's or Koji's way while they did the post-race work.

The air in the building seemed to have become suffocating within the last minute.

"You coming or not?" she asked, glancing over at Jordan, who paused where he'd been making use of an eyedropper, before giving a half-grin and taking a seat behind her—and then they were off.

While she was sure to avoid anyone that was in the way, there might've been a time or two when a Scrub had to dive out of her way first. The sun was starting to set, staining the area around them fiery-orange. "Hey, uh, Molly?" Jordan started when they'd reached the edge of the souk. "I'm not sure I'm up for a long ride. Besides, all these fields look the same. What if we get lost or something?"

"Jordan, you have no sense of adventure," she deadpanned in response. With a simple warning of "Hang on!" she floored the pedal, and the rocket-seat shot forward again. The fields were a blur going by for a few minutes before she eased up on it, seeing the stone structures lining the edges of a few of them. "Hey, those don't look like anything else the Scrubs built, do they?"

Jordan looked at them for a few seconds. "I've never really paid attention to how the buildings look."

"You could at least _pretend_ to be interested, you know!" Eva cut the engine to the rocket-seat when they'd passed a ruin that still looked mostly like a building, having a half-crumbled pillar on one side that led up to what looked like it had been a balcony at one point. "I'm gonna check that one out."

"But it's starting to get dark!" Jordan complained.

Eva rolled her eyes before starting up the pillar. "You seriously think Don Wei is gonna _worry_ about us?" she asked after reaching the balcony, turning to look back at Jordan. Something else caught her attention, though; it was a glimmer of brighter-orange against the sky, and would've otherwise been easily dismissible had it not been getting bigger.

Jordan, who was halfway up the pillar, looked confused for a second before following her gaze. Two seconds later he looked back up at her, eyes wide. "Molly get down from there, that thing's gonna crash!"

That was all the prompting she needed to skid back down the pillar with him, and just in time—the decently-sized flaming object crashed into the top of the ruin, smashing right through it and planting itself in the muddy bank on the other side of the lake.

The sound of stone breaking continued, all while the entire structure of the ruin tilted gradually sideways, until a louder _crack_ signaled the entire thing rapidly sinking into the water.

"…and you wanted to go in there," Jordan said finally, his voice fainter than normal.

Eva opted to not make a remark this time, instead looking past the stilling water at the still-smoking _not-a-meteor_. "Jordan, look—it's a ship!"

"A ship?" he repeated, confounded, staring at it. "Huh, I guess it is," he muttered, before stammering "H-Hey, wait a sec!" at seeing her starting to wade through the shallower half of the lake. "Molly, we don't even know where that thing came from, or—or who might be in it! What if they're not friendly?"

"Jordan, they just _crash-landed_ ," she retorted, turning to glare at him a little. "Even if they're not, what if they're hurt?" His gaze went briefly skyward with a heavy sigh, before he started after her.

The ship was a little bigger than the _Arrow_ , if being narrower in build, and was primarily gray in color, with the edges being a darker shade. At cautiously holding one hand near the metal to test if it was safe to touch yet (it was still _easy_ to tell that it just came in hot from space) that a deep unease suddenly overtook Eva, abruptly enough to make her jump slightly.

It wasn't a _something's-wrong_ sort of unease, though. If anything, it was more like _something's-changed_.

But she didn't know _what_ might've changed. Or how.

Jordan took a step back, scowling as he looked the ship over. "I don't recognize it from any of the books back home," he said, before side-eyeing her. "Are you _sure_ this is a good idea?"

She didn't reply, instead taking advantage of the fact that they were still standing in a few inches' worth of water to splash some onto what looked like the primary entrance for the ship. It didn't immediately evaporate, so she tested it again; still warm, but not to the point where she couldn't touch it. "Jordan, d'you—I don't know, see a lever or something anywhere?"

"No. Molly, a spaceship wouldn't have a lever _on the outside_ —" He stopped talking, looking back over his shoulder. Eva looked as well, just in time to see the star-racer belonging to their opponent of earlier in the day come to a stop, with Rush jumping down to start toward them, pickaxe/chainsaw in hand.

"Um, did you—need something?" Eva asked cautiously.

"I'd followed you out here to congratulate you on your win," Rush replied. "And I saw the ship crash on the way out here." He eyed the sealed hatch before adding, "Allow me." One swing of the weaponized tool later, the hatch had one sizable dent in it, the doors being ajar enough for both Eva and Jordan to pry them aside, with some effort.

Two seconds later Eva scrambled backwards with a barely-stifled scream, nearly falling backwards into the water, with there being a hurried "It's a robot! It's just a robot!" from Jordan.

 _That doesn't make it any less scary,_ she thought, creeping back over to the door. A second look showed that there were wires sticking out of the half of a humanoid figure. To the side, Rush hummed thoughtfully. "I've never seen a ship like this before."

"Me neither," Jordan agreed halfheartedly, looking up a bit. Then there was a quieter "Huh?" before he took a step into the ship. For a few long moments, he stood completely still, before he breathed "No way."

"Jordan, what…?" She trailed off when he wordlessly pointed. Further back in the ship was the one actual passenger. He had black hair with a gray undercut and a white forelock, a lateral scar running across the bridge of his nose, and was wearing an outfit that was more rags than anything, but what had Eva really staring was that he was _human_.

"That—that _can't_ be him." Jordan's voice was thick with disbelief, but it didn't stop him from moving forward to make an attempt at picking the man up. He settled for half-carrying/half-dragging him into the light after a few seconds' worth of struggling.

"Can't be who?" Eva asked, confused, before a quiet, pained-sounding exhalation from the man prompted her to reconsider their priorities.

She looked first at the rocket-seat, deduced that there was no way all three of them would fit on it, before looking up at Rush. "Do you think we could—get a ride back to town, please?"

He nodded, moving to take the man from them easily. "I'd be glad to."

* * *

It was funny, how fast it could go from feeling like you knew someone, to realizing that you actually barely knew them at all.

Rick had just figured that out the hard way. Don really, _really_ did not seem like someone that would even bother with having a family, and yet, he'd just up and told Rick that exact story, all because of one little comment he'd made to the team's manager after Molly and Jordan had taken off.

Rick adjusted his shades so that they wouldn't slide down at all before glancing at the old book he'd set on the table in the mezzanine. If it didn't shed any light on that weird old stone pendent and the weird old symbol on it, he didn't know what else would.

It was pretty much a history book, or at least something close to it—the scrawling letters that the Scrubs used were easy enough to get a basic grasp of, at least, otherwise this would've been an even-bigger headache than it needed to be.

The first couple of minutes hadn't been much more than a self-imposed history lesson (turns out the Scrubs weren't always so peaceful), and the one remotely-promising part of it—which had been describing some kind of "calamity"—had dropped into another subject altogether with no transitions.

Like whatever disaster it had been was purposefully removed from the record books.

Given that nature had decided to be a bitch and drop a lightning bolt on the one _person_ that was his lead, it was frustrating.

Given that whoever or whatever that symbol was linked to had _definitely_ sabotaged the _Arrow I_ and ruined his racing career with that, it was _beyond_ frustrating.

It made him feel useless, and Rick did _not_ like feeling useless.

He also wasn't sure he liked the feeling that had crept into the air over the last ten minutes or so—a heavy sort of tension that made it almost seem like there was a storm coming. The sky had been spotless earlier, but there were dark blotches on the horizon outside that might be rainclouds.

Another flip of the page faced him with an illustration that took up both sides of the old book, absolutely nothing on it even remotely resembling the symbol. What kept him from checking the page after that was the centerpiece of the illustration.

Footsteps to the side had him glance up. Rick wasn't too much of a book person, either, which was probably why he could practically see the unspoken question on Don's face. He picked the book up and turned it so the team manager could see the image. "Nice picture, ain't it?"

"I'm not sure I understand what I'm looking at," was the near-monotone response.

"Pretty sure it's a cat." Rick paused, before adding "They don't even _have_ cats on Alwas," in a mutter mostly meant for himself. So maybe that was another thing to look into later.

Beneath the image was some writing, but it had to be an older dialect or something, because at the most Rick could only make out a mention of some fire-guardian or other.

Some commotion in the hangar below got Don look through the window, and then scowl before walking over to the top of the stairway. "Jordan? Where on earth is Molly?"

Rick followed him out to see that the team gunner had come back by himself, looking like he'd just run a marathon; he was doubled over and probably would've fallen over if Stan hadn't been holding him up. "Jordan, breathe first. Okay?" Koji said after Jordan had tried and failed to answer Don's question.

"Ship…crashed," the gunner managed to say between gasps after a few moments, starting to catch his breath. "Someone was…in it. At hospital now. Molly's there."

"And _why_ is Molly still there, exactly?" Don asked, an edge in his voice— _there's_ the Don that Rick was used to. (Not that Rick was necessarily glad to see him that way again.) "We have a race tomorrow, and we'll all have to be adequately rested for it!"

In response Jordan raised his index finger in a _wait-a-moment_ gesture, and swallowed hard before saying "It was the Kerberos pilot."

The title didn't immediately ring any bells for Rick, and if Don's still-irritated look was any clue, the same went for him.

That did _not_ go for the mechanics; he saw Koji frown a bit, and there was a doubtful "You sure it wasn't just a guy that looked like him?" from Stan.

Jordan shook his head. "I'm serious! It's _Shiro_!"

* * *

It felt like only a few minutes had gone by before Jordan came back with the rest of the team in tow. The stormy look on her dad's face when he saw her there was replaced with something that might've been shock when he looked a little further to the side, at the window that separated the hallway from what the doctor had referred to as the quarantine zone, before starting at a pace that wasn't exactly walking toward the doorway leading into that room when the aforementioned alien motioned for him.

The only reason it was being used was because they didn't know where this man had come from. Eva was also _certain_ that she'd seen him somewhere before, but Jordan had taken off in the general direction of the pit before she could ask him. She'd at least remembered to thank Rush for the ride beforehand.

Stan and Koji both stared through the glass, before the former said "Well, it definitely _looks_ like him."

"It _is_ him," Jordan insisted. "Shiro was one of the best flight instructors in the whole Garrison before…" He trailed off, biting his lip.

"Before what?" Eva asked. If she had to be honest with herself, the four looks of confusion she got really should've been expected. "I mean, he looks familiar," she added. "I'm just not sure from where."

"Well, it _was_ from a year ago," Stan admitted. "It was all over the news when it happened, though."

"It was a routine trip out to Kerberos," Jordan clarified. "Which, uh, it's one of Pluto's moons. A-Anyways—all three of them just _vanished_ not too long after they even got out there. They said it was _pilot error_ , but…but Shiro was the pilot, and he's right there." He got steadily quieter as he spoke.

"You know him?" Eva asked.

"Uh, n-not personally, 'cause he was stationed in a different country, but he broke practically every single piloting record the Garrison had."

 _Broke every record?_ Okay, _maybe_ now Eva had some questions she wanted to ask the man.

A sudden cacophony from the other room grabbed their collective attention, and Eva looked to see that Shiro had jolted awake and had made an attempt at sitting upright, only to sway a bit before sinking back down again. His attention darted around the room until it fixed on both her dad and the doctor (moreso her dad) and he was saying something that…that she couldn't make any sense of.

She could dimly hear what sounded like they should be words, but the tones weren't like anything she'd heard before and the translator-attachment that she'd gotten along with the others was just _not working_ with whatever language that was. She could hear a few words being repeated, but they didn't have any real meaning to them, as far as she knew.

Her dad tried saying something now and then, looking increasingly unnerved, before the doctor cut in with something else, moving to take something off of a nearby table. Following that was a frantic stream of words that, while _she_ still didn't recognize it, Koji apparently did, with how he flinched.

"Did you catch that?" Stan asked uncertainly.

"Not really," the technician mumbled, shifting uneasily. "He _really_ didn't want to get sedated right there."

"I don't think anyone would want that," Rick remarked quietly. "So what's the verdict?" he asked at normal volume when Don came back into their half of the room.

"We're going back to the pit," he said stiffly. The fact that he _looked_ rattled was enough to have Eva feeling nervous herself. "They'll be bringing him there a few minutes from now."

* * *

From a distance, Satis watched the entire Earth Team start back toward their team's pit, absently fiddling with his beard. He'd heard enough of the newcomer's rambling to have a grasp on what was coming, and coming _soon_.

It was nothing good, to say the least.

He turned his gaze in the general direction of one of the distant capes before saying "It's a good thing you've made your choice already. You're running out of time here."

The recipient of the words wasn't there physically, but he certainly was mentally-speaking; he did the psychic equivalent of an uneasy shift of the foot before agreeing.

* * *

To say that the most recent events of today had been the _mother of all surprises_ would be a vast understatement, though it was one that Don admittedly had a mixed opinion on.

Mixed, because while he hated surprises, a man presumed to have been dead an entire year was actually quite alive…if not exactly well.

Takashi Shirogane had left Earth with both arms, and had come to Alwas with one flesh-and-blood, one metal of an unknown kind. That the prosthetic was _wired directly to his nervous system_ was something the doctor had not been able to keep the awe from his tone over.

He'd spoken nothing but gibberish up until the very end, when there had been a single, panicked protest in Japanese. Koji had clarified on that last detail, which had been another surprise—Don hadn't been aware that their technician was bilingual until then. The only reason that language wasn't coded into the translators was because there simply hadn't been a reason for it to have been.

It was minor compared to the _other_ surprises they'd had so far, however.

All of it together made for a troubling image that left him feeling on-edge, to the point where he wasn't able to maintain his usual composure when contacting the president; he tapped two fingers repeatedly against the desk, waiting for the interlink to connect to Earth.

If the Coalition's president was surprised to be contacted, he didn't show it. _"Don Wei, I wasn't expecting to hear from you again so soon,"_ he greeted, though his tone took a solemn tone at the addition of _"Everything's well, I hope."_

"Today's race was a victory, if a narrow one," Don replied. "Though we did have a bit of an unexpected development not too long ago. It—" He paused, feeling momentarily hesitant, before finishing "It has to do with the…incident involving Kerberos last year. A ship crashed here on Alwas, and the mission's pilot was inside."

 _"Lieutenant Shirogane, if I remember that disaster right. He's alive?"_

"Well, yes, but there are some _concerns_ for his mental state."

The president sighed, though it was nearly inaudible. _"I'm not surprised. If he's alive, it probably means he and the other two were captured and held prisoner for that entire time. Has he said anything about that?"_

Well, that went better than Don had expected. "If he had, it was nothing we could understand. The language he was speaking was indecipherable. And whatever he was saying…" Truthfully, Don wasn't sure if Takashi had been fully conscious earlier. The look in his eyes had been borderline hysterical. "I would almost say he was trying to warn us about something."

There was a pause, the president looking as though he'd aged a decade all of a sudden, before saying _"Arrange for Lieutenant Shirogane to be brought back to Earth as soon as possible."_

"Understood. But if I may—does this have to do with this threat you mentioned before?"

 _"No, it does not. And for all of our sakes, I hope that this isn't the precursor of something much worse."_

* * *

Shiro heard the voices first.

They were quiet and indistinct when he noticed them, but slowly grew clearer—and then they stopped. _Why_ did they stop, and why did they sound _familiar_ , even though he was sure he'd never heard them before?

 _Unless—_

The mental fog was ripped away with no precedent, and the first lucid detail Shiro comprehended was that his head collided very hard and very fast with someone else's. Whoever it was fell back with a sharp curse, with someone else hurriedly asking if they were okay.

Shiro himself kept one hand to his forehead for a few seconds, waiting for the spike of pain to pass, before moving the appendage just low enough for him to see that he was lying on a low couch, with there being a small coffee table to his right. Beyond that were the voices' sources, whom Shiro could only stare at.

All four of them were human, and that observation was both relieving and disconcerting at the same time.

The first ever-so-elegant words out of his mouth was "Uh, hi?" if only because he not only had to mentally fumble to not use…some alien language, but also speak a _specific_ human language, which was one he thankfully had at least a basic—emphasizing _basic_ —grasp of.

He never thought he'd be thankful for those mandatory language lessons that the Garrison had, specifically the French ones, and yet here he was.

At the same time, something seemed… _off_ about this, like his ears were hearing one thing but his brain was comprehending it as something else.

"Hi," the one sitting closest to where he was returned; the only girl of the four had black hair with the top half dyed red, and was wearing a cropped green-and-yellow shirt with beige trousers. Her right ear had three piercings in it, and she had two tattoos on her face, under her eyes: a star on the right side and a vertical line on the left. "A-Are you, um, okay?"

"I…think so." Half of him wanted to say _yes_ , the other half wanted to scream _no_. He felt fine, for the most part, except for the fact that everything before now was a foggy mess. "I-I'm sorry, but—where are we?"

"Alwas."

That sounded familiar, somehow, in a way that made his heart jump. At the same time, he knew all the names of the planets in the Coalition, and Alwas wasn't one of them.

Both of the girl's responses had been halting, as though she wasn't sure how to address him. Which, considering they'd just met, made sense. "Who are you?" he thought to ask finally.

"Molly," she answered after a moment, offering a quick smile and holding a yellow-gloved hand out. Shiro took it after a moment of hesitation, telling himself that they were _extremely unlikely_ to be a threat of any kind—but the unease refused to go away. "The guy you knocked heads with is Stan," the girl went on, before gesturing over her shoulder. "And that's Koji." One of the two sitting offered a small wave, dark-haired and pale and bespectacled.

Shiro offered a quick apology to Stan, who replied with "I've been hit with worse," as he stood up—he had dark skin, red hair and sideburns, and was wearing beige overalls with smudges of what Shiro assumed was engine oil on them; the same went for his own pair of gloves.

Koji's outfit was similar to that, with the addition of a shirt colored like Molly's, and minus the gloves. _Mechanics, maybe?_

Shiro found himself being intercepted by the third boy before he could ask, in the form of a vigorous handshake. He was talking too quick for Shiro to catch much, aside from the fact that his name was Jordan Wilde, and that he referred to Shiro as _Lieutenant Shirogane_.

"Just Shiro is fine," he replied, finding himself smiling a little at Jordan's enthusiasm. He had black hair with one half bleached blonde, and some light freckles across his face. His cameo-patterned green outfit had those same yellow highlights as Eva's and Koji's—it _had_ to be a uniform of some sort.

Stan got up, shaking his head a bit, before pausing, making a face. "No offense, but those _reek_. How long've you been in 'em?"

Shiro glanced down at himself, specifically at the dark-colored outfit he was wearing.

As for the answer to the question…he found himself unable to come up with it. He settled with "You probably don't want the answer to that."

Jordan scratched the back of his head a bit. "Well, I have some spare boots that might fit you," he said before turning on his heel and vanishing through a doorway to what looked like it was an elevator.

Stan followed him, muttering something that vaguely sounded like "I might have something too." Koji shuffled his feet a bit before vanishing into a smaller room off to the side; from what little Shiro could see of it, it might be a kitchen.

Not that he was complaining, because he couldn't remember when the last time he ate was. Actually, he couldn't remember much of _anything_ , now that he was thinking about it. His head felt like it was filled with cotton candy.

Shiro nearly missed Molly asking him a question. "Hospital?" he repeated blankly, brow furrowing slightly. He could dimly recall being somewhere hospital-like, now that he was really thinking about it.

She nodded. "You were saying something back there, but we couldn't understand most of what you were saying."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shiro replied, frowning more at himself than at her. He offhandedly noted that her eyes actually weren't brown—they were more of a maroon shade in this lighting, and might actually be red in direct light.

 _Red_. Whether or not it was just because he'd been seeing quite a bit of it in short order, something about the thought of the color sparked _something_ for a moment—but it was gone before Shiro could even think to chase after it.

At the same time, Stan and Jordan both returned, each holding something. "These look okay?" the former asked, proffering the fabric.

"They do." Shiro took the clothes before adding, "Thanks."

"No problem. Bathroom's the first room to the right up the stairs."

The room was mostly greyscale, with some tan hues here and there. While Shiro knew he looked _different_ , considering that he'd been gone for—months? _Years_? He didn't know how long.

Either way, he still stopped at seeing his reflection in the wall-mounted mirror over the sink. He looked ten years older than he really was…which was what, still twenty-four? Twenty-five? Or older than that? Shiro didn't know what day it was, or what the date in general was, so he couldn't be sure.

The clothes and boots all fit okay, which was a plus. The dark-colored raggedy outfit was promptly stuffed into the wastebin, and while Shiro was tempted to find a lit match to drop on it, he wasn't sure how safe that would be.

He'd also found with a jolt that there was a small device fastened to the back of his neck, though at the same time it might explain why it was like he was hearing two different things at once from the others.

After he was back down the stairs and as he turns the corner, something stopped him cold.

He was pretty sure his nose actually _twitched_ a few times as he tried to put a name to the scent in the air. "Hope you like cup-ramen," Molly said when she saw him, seeming to be halfway through her own already. "It's all we have."

 _Cup-ramen_. Shiro could tell by their expressions and the barely-suppressed giggles that they hadn't been expecting him to practically inhale the cheap noodles, but it was the best thing he'd tasted in a long time. That one was a fact—he could practically feel it in his bones.

When he was about finished, something caught his eye, out the window. A better view of it came from the balcony through the door: indisputably a star-racer.

It was no _Persephone_ , but it did look like a decent craft, sporting an orange/purple paint-job in a flame-like pattern on both reactors. The left one had what looked like a pink rabbit's-head spray-painted onto it. Pilot's touch, if Shiro had to guess.

"That's the _Whizzing Arrow II_ ," Stan said from somewhere behind Shiro, a note of pride in his voice. "Koji and I helped build her."

"What happened to you, anyways?" Jordan asked then. "You were going on about some stuff back at the hospital, but you were really out of it."

"What kind of stuff?" Shiro asked, raising an eyebrow. (Yep, that thing was _definitely_ a translator.)

There was another tense pause, before Koji said, "Nothing you were saying made sense. I mean—we couldn't understand a word of it. What language was that?"

"I…I'm not sure." He really wasn't. The more he thought about it, the more it was seeming like someone had taken a vase full of his memories and thrown it onto the floor, and thrown a few of the larger pieces out. "I remember the mission, and being captured, but everything between that and now…it's all a blur."

"Do you know who captured you?" Jordan asked. His tone took on a belligerent edge when he added "Was it the Crogs?"

"No." He'd answered suddenly enough to have all four of them startle, and thoughtlessly enough to surprise himself. "Not—not Crogs. Something else."

Something else, who were looking for…for _something_.

 _Something important._

* * *

Jordan wasn't really sure what he had been expecting when Shiro—actually _Takashi Shirogane_ himself—woke up, but this…wasn't exactly it. He seemed a little amused by Molly's various questions on all the various records he'd broken piloting-wise, and he'd asked a few questions of his own about the _Arrow_ , which Koji had answered by showing him a few things on his tablet, but the tension hadn't disappeared from the lieutenant's face.

His team hadn't been captured by Crogs, but he didn't remember who or what the culprit had been. The only clue they had to _that_ puzzle was the robot half that had been in the ship he'd come to Alwas in.

Jordan was almost tempted to go back out there to take another look at it, but there wouldn't be much of a point to that, though, since now it was too dark to… _wait a second_. "H-Hold on. That ship you came here in—there was half a robot in it."

The conversation halted, and Shiro's brow furrowed a little. Jordan was also getting two dumbstruck looks from the mechanics at that detail, but he ignored it for the most part.

"Yeah," Molly agreed. "Does that sound familiar?"

"I think so," was the slow response. "What did it—" Shiro stopped abruptly, at the same time as a bizarre sort of tension abruptly creeping into the air.

For a few seconds, it felt almost like gravity had been momentarily turned off, and then back on before anything had a chance to move. Then the entire foundation of the pit shook hard enough to throw him to the ground, an explosion sounding somewhere scarily close.

"What the hell was that?" Stan asked seconds after picking himself up off the floor.

"Maybe one of the nearby teams did something?" Koji suggested, his voice wavering. That actually _would've_ been a viable reason, given that one of the teams closer to the lake managed to have their star-racer explode after a modification went _very_ wrong a few days ago, but a second, louder explosion not only rendered that null, but also left the lights flickering.

At that point, Jordan bolted down the stairs and to the pit's entrance, and then his train of thought all but derailed both hard and fast. The most notable things about the sight outside was that more than a few buildings were on fire right now, and there were _multiple_ dark shapes in the sky, visible through all of the smoke by vivid red highlights.

A sudden movement next to him shook him out of it, and Jordan turned to see Rick; the ex-pilot stared out for two seconds before looking over his shoulder, saying "Molly, take the others in the _Arrow_ and get out of here!"

"But what about—" she started protesting, but he cut her off.

"Don might be a human cactus, but he can't throw a punch to save his life! Now _go_!"

Don Wei had gone out a few minutes before Shiro had woken up and hadn't come back yet. And now Rick was gone too, Jordan already having lost sight of him in the darkness.

It took Stan grabbing him by the shoulder to snap him back to attention again, and he'd barely had time to strap himself into the turret before the _Arrow_ shot out of the pit at a speed quicker than what Molly usually did when heading to a race.

Then again, this wasn't a race, and that detail was shoved to the forefront of Jordan's attention when a laser blast just narrowly missed the _Arrow_ , the resulting explosion briefly sending the star-racer careening to one side.

Jordan wasn't sure what was going through her head at the moment, either. She hadn't gone for the open plain that went away from the civilized area, but then again, maybe these aliens would've expected that.

It also meant that they were constantly swerving left and right to avoid more laser shots and what Jordan thought were other star-racers, but they were going by way too fast for him to actually get a solid glimpse of anything.

Even then, he wasn't sure he _wanted_ to get a better look—and it got even worse when they reached the souk, because then there were all the _buildings_ to watch out for too.

Another near-miss forced Jordan to suppress a flinch, and he angled the turret upwards to aim at the source. With the light from the fires, he could see that the alien ship was dark-gray in color and all angles, looking _vaguely_ similar to the ship Shiro had come to Alwas in. Jordan set his shoulders before opening fire, with the thought of _I don't know who you aliens think you are, but you're gonna regret messing with us!_

But it became painfully obvious after a minute that, while star-racers were _not_ meant for combat, that alien ship was.

The _Arrow_ had the turret Jordan was in, but it just didn't have the raw firepower to even leave a mark on that thing—and on the other hand, he did _not_ want to know what would happen if the _Arrow_ took a hit from one of those laser blasts.

 _Maybe we can outrun him,_ he thought, opening the comm channel, but the suggestion faded in his throat almost immediately.

He wasn't sure if Molly noticed that the comm was up to begin with, with how she was staring straight ahead with a glassy-eyed look, and though he couldn't see either of the mechanics, from what little he could _hear_ over the currently-redundant alarm and all of the background noise, they weren't doing much better.

Shiro looked tense, his face beaded with sweat. If he started panicking, Jordan was sure it would spell doom for his own nerves. The _Arrow_ made another sharp turn, now streaking across some paddy fields, picking up speed now that they were on open ground with no obstacles ahead—but that alien ship was still behind them, keeping pace with them.

Over the screen, he saw Molly punch in a command without looking at the console. The _Arrow_ jolted seconds later, accentuated by a loud backfiring sound from both reactors, and Jordan's view was obscured by dark smoke and flickers of flame. _She must've tried using the hyperdrive,_ he thought, swallowing reflexively.

There was a sound akin to a terrified whimper over the comm—it took a bit for Jordan to realize it had been from _Molly_ —right before the star-racer pivoted to the side into a stand of thick trees. At least, Jordan assumed they were trees.

A metallic crunching sound made him flinch, but Jordan saw the bloom of flame from up in the air; the alien ship had crashed into one of the trees. There was a hoarse sigh over the comm from Stan, and Shiro visibly sagged a little in relief.

Molly didn't let up on the speed, still staring ahead dazedly, and Jordan opened his mouth to say something to maybe snap her out of it, but something else caught his attention—and a few of the more flamboyant words in his vocabulary ran through his head in rapid-fire succession when he realized what exactly they were speeding toward.

"MOLLY— _CLIFF_!"

* * *

Up until this tick, the assignment had been going absolutely perfect. Lirax had nearly laughed aloud when he _saw_ just how primitive this planet was. It had no defense systems of any kind anywhere, and the participants of the racing competition had been all too complacent with the _truce_ in effect.

True, there had been some attempted resistance, but that was equally laughable. Those held aboard the ship now would be sent elsewhere in the empire's reaches where they could be made use of, once this was all settled with—specifically the one major hiccup that he'd just been presented with.

"What. Is. _That_?" he growled, staring at the video feed that had been recovered from a destroyed fighter.

"It appears to be one of the racing ships, sir," one of his subordinates answered. That much was obvious by design alone. The smaller craft swerved frantically from side to side, just narrowly avoiding every single shot, all while a side-mounted turret fired onto the fighter. Despite its blocky build, it was surprisingly swift.

At one point there was a burst of flames from the two reactors of the racing ship, shortly before it turned into a stand of fossilized flora. The video cut out the moment the fighter hit one of the petrified structures.

Lirax's eyes narrowed. "Which planet is that piece of scrap from?"

The subordinate audibly swallowed before replying, "It was from the escaped prisoner's homeworld."

The commander rounded on the rest of the crew immediately. "Search the island for them! They cannot be allowed to find the Lion before we do!"

* * *

(endnote)

-everyone participating in the Great Race receives a translation device, because the everyone/thing-speaks-the-same-language thing just really irritates me. The device is attached to the base of the user's neck, and interacts with the nervous system via short-range electronic signals, translating auditory input with the use of a computer database that's constantly updating.

-the whole human-language bit is running on the basis of only one language being in the translator, i.e. the one the race team spoke. Which in this case, as a nod to where OSR was developed, is French. Shiro is pretty used to English, given that he was stationed in what might just be the state of Arizona, if some little details in VLD's first ep are anything to go on.

-Space Academy (OSR) = Galaxy Garrison (VLD). Using the latter's name because it sounds less cheesy. Jordan is known as "that guy who always goes overkill in target practice" and "the guy that made Mr. Feinberg retire" on top of being William Wilde's grandson. He isn't a favorite of many of the staff for the latter two reasons, Iverson included, and is ostracized by most of the other cadets.


	2. Crossroads

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Crossroads**

In a near-repeat of earlier, Shiro was sitting upright before he had time to think about what he was doing, or about what had happened. It was too dark to really see anything, but he could hear the quiet lapping of waves on sand somewhere not too far off, and smell smoke. There was a dull ache between his eyes, and his heart was racing.

They followed him to Alwas. They were searching for…for whatever it was they wanted. He still couldn't remember what exactly they wanted, just that he _couldn't let them find_ —

The ache intensified for a few seconds, and Shiro winced, stumbling to his feet. The sound of a piece of glass crunching underfoot gave him some pause.

Then the most recent event came rushing back, right as he heard a sudden shuffling sound behind him; he couldn't really see much more than silhouettes at that moment, but it looked like Stan. "Are you alright?" Shiro asked.

"Define _alright_ ," was the flat response—he was right in guessing who it was. Stan stood up, looking around before asking "We didn't just crash, did we?"

"Not exactly," Shiro replied slowly, thinking back on it. "I think…I think we fell, actually."

"Fell, no," he heard Jordan say then; a metallic creak had preceded a hatch opening to let him pull himself up onto the cockpit's floor. "Flew off a cliff, yes."

 _That explains why we were all knocked out,_ Shiro thought, alarmed, while Stan repeated "Flew off a…?" in a disbelieving mutter. The smoke was starting to make Shiro's eyes water—but they'd gone quite a distance away from the natives' town, so he wasn't exactly sure how he was even still smelling smoke to begin with.

At least, not until Stan also noticed it, swore, and then opened a smaller hatch in the floor to take out something before jumping down from the ship. Following that was the telltale sound of a fire extinguisher being used.

Koji was also starting to get back to his feet, and now that some of the clouds above had moved and improved the lighting, Shiro could see that Molly had been thrown out of the seat by the impact, lying in a spot thankfully clear of glass shards; the impact had also broken the covering of the star-racer's cockpit.

She was breathing okay when Shiro went to check on her after clearing the glass shards from the floor of the cockpit (bonus of having a metal arm—it couldn't be cut up by glass) and groaned quietly before looking up at him. "Shiro? What…what just happened?"

"We crashed," he replied. "How are you feeling?"

Molly looked shocked for a second or two before saying "I'm okay. What about—?"

"We're okay too," Koji spoke up quietly, sharing a look with Stan, who'd since climbed back up. "You…tried using the hyperdrive earlier."

"I _what_?" Her voice cracked a little on the second word. "How's the _Arrow_?"

"Can't see too much without light or equipment," Stan said. "But if I had to guess…" He shook his head. "We're gonna have some major problems with the next race."

At that, something that wasn't exactly fear crossed Molly's face, before transitioning to the actual emotion when she asked "Wait, where are Rick and Don Wei?"

Shiro didn't know the names (or did he? They both sounded vaguely familiar) but he was going to assume that one of them had been the fifth person seen before everything had gone sideways. The other three had frozen in place, with Jordan shifting a bit before saying "No idea. Rick ran out looking for Don before we booked it."

Molly scrambled to her feet. "Then we have to go look for them—c'mon!" As if on cue, a thundercrack equivalent in volume to a cannon shot sounded overhead, making all of them flinch.

"Not right now we aren't," Stan countered decisively, taking a tarp from the storage compartment and throwing one half over the largest piece of intact glass. The other was left to hang off the edge, and just in time, because then the sky opened up.

"Well this sucks," Jordan huffed, after managing to balance one of the two flashlights so that it provided some light in the makeshift tent.

"It's not _too_ bad," Koji commented, smile faltering a bit at the flat looks both Jordan and Molly gave him. "It's…kind of like camping?" Something else seemed to catch his attention then, and he started slightly before taking the fourth and final item from the storage compartment out, which was a small medical kit, and pushed it toward Stan. "I think you got a cut right here." He motioned to a spot next to his eye, and when Shiro looked at Stan, he now noticed the streak of darker red on his face.

"Huh?" Stan reached up to poke at the spot, flinching a bit when the fabric of his glove made contact with the source of the blood, before taking both some gauze and a small canister of antibiotic out of the kit. "Ugh, I thought I felt something weird right there."

Shiro watched the exchange quietly, until he noticed Jordan looking sideways at him. When the mutual attention was noticed, he asked "Who the hell are those guys anyways?"

The answer to that flickered in Shiro's head, like the lightning that had just flashed overhead. "Galra." The name was bitter on his tongue. "They're the Galra."

Conversation thoroughly halted, all four of them looked at Shiro with varying expressions, until Koji hesitantly asked "Do you remember anything else?"

The aliens that captured him and his team were called Galra, and they were looking for _something_ —

"They're looking for something here on the planet somewhere," Shiro said, scowling up at nothing in particular. "Some kind of weapon, I think."

"A weapon?" Molly echoed.

"That _sounds_ like a good-enough reason for all this to happen," Stan muttered while making sure the patch of gauze would stick. "But what _doesn't_ make any sense is why something like that would be here in the first place."

"Actually, it kind of does," Koji pointed out uneasily. "Alwas is as peaceful as it gets."

"Not like _that_ did any good," Jordan commented sarcastically, and Shiro felt himself wince more than anything.

"I'm sorry for dragging all of you into this," he said quietly.

Jordan froze, before stammering out "H-Hey, at least you were here to warn us. I'm not sure I wanna think about what could've happened if you weren't."

Neither did Shiro, if the nausea that followed comprehending that statement was any indicator. He couldn't be too sure about Stan or Koji, but Molly and Jordan had to be teenagers at the most.

Shiro shook his head a little before asking, "Alwas isn't one of the planets in the Coalition, is it?"

"It's not," Jordan affirmed in response. "We're here for some kind of important racing competition."

"The Great Race of Ōban," Molly elaborated.

"I figured it was a competition," Shiro said. "But, ah, don't you have to be at least eighteen to fly a star-racer?"

That got the stilted response of "Rick was our first pilot. He…can't race anymore."

"I still think we were sabotaged," Stan grumbled.

"Stan, we already went over this," Koji sighed. "There's nothing in the rules against sabotage."

"That doesn't mean we have to be okay with it though!"

"Alright, now's probably not the best time to be going over that," Shiro cut in, the walls of the tarp-tent being briefly illuminated by a flash of lightning.

Molly was looking off to the side now, almost blankly, before she asked "Do you think they made it out of there okay?"

"If there was anywhere to hide, I'm sure they found it."

"Yeah," Jordan agreed. "C'mon Molly, this is _Rick_ we're talking about!"

Molly smiled briefly, nodding almost imperceptibly, though it faltered. "There's something else, though."

"Which is?" Stan queried.

"Why did this all happen? I mean—why didn't the Avatar do anything to stop it?"

Avatar. Shiro knew that the word was typically used in gaming terminology, but here it sounded like something more… _important_. "The Avatar," he repeated, before asking "Who is that?"

"He's some kind of…" Jordan trailed off for a few seconds at a muffled sound that didn't quite sound like thunder. "Some kind of guardian, I guess." He snorted before adding "He's sure not doing a good job at it right now."

Shiro replied with a thoughtful sound, if only because he was clueless, making note of Molly stifling a yawn before saying "You four should get some rest."

"What about you?" Koji asked.

"I'll be fine. Besides, someone has to keep watch."

Neither he or Jordan looked entirely convinced, but Shiro couldn't see them for long anyways, since Stan reached to turn the flashlight off shortly after. It wasn't long before he heard quiet snores from someone, which earned a quiet chuckle. The accompanying smile faded into a grimace shortly after.

He dragged them all into his mess. Unintentionally, yes, but they were still in danger because of him. The Galra did not show mercy, not even to children…and though Shiro couldn't remember how he knew that, if the emotion that crashed through him at that thought was any indicator, he might not _want_ to remember.

And all he still knew for certain was that they had to find whatever weapon was hidden on this planet before the Galra did.

* * *

The first thing Stan comprehended when he woke up was that it was cold, which left him confused for a few seconds, staring blankly at the fabric above that sounded like it had rain pattering against it.

Then he remembered _why_ he was seeing and hearing both of those things, and looked around—not that it did much, considering that it was _early_ morning, and with how the tarp was set up. Molly, Jordan, and Koji looked like they were still pretty out of it, but Shiro was gone.

 _Probably just outside,_ he thought, wincing as he stood up; the _Arrow_ 's cockpit wasn't the most comfortable thing to fall asleep in, and he was pretty stiff after lying on the metal surface. Then again, it wasn't like they'd had much of a choice.

A glance outside showed that they were on a beach, though a different one from the end of the racetrack. It wasn't as spacious, having more than a few piles of rocks strewn about, and what light there was let him see an unbroken line of dried seaweed lining the water's edge.

Shiro was standing by the edge of the water, looking further down the beach, toward where the team had called home for the past week. There was really only one indicator on where exactly it was in comparison to the Scrubs' settlement, and that was the thick smoke just visible in the distance, by means of it blotting out the still-fading stars.

Beyond that, it was both too dark and too far away to really make out any details, aside from a few indistinct shapes hovering above it all that he had a nagging feeling were _not_ birds.

He wasn't sure how much time went by, the only indicator being that that the sky had gradually started lightening to a pale silvery-white, and footsteps behind him startled him back to attention.

"They must've really wrecked the place," Jordan said, eyes wide in dismay. Koji's expression pretty much matched the gunner's, as did Molly's, but only for a few moments.

"So now what do we do?" she asked quietly.

Shiro looked around the beach, brow furrowed slightly, before saying, "We find a place with better cover. It's too open out here." He paused, before asking "Is the _Arrow_ operational?"

"Uh…" Stan glanced at Koji, who now looked just as unsure as Stan was feeling. If he had to be completely honest with himself, he had some serious doubts on if their star-racer could even _move_ after that crash.

"It's worth a try, but I wouldn't have my hopes up if I were you," he said finally.

Molly climbed back up to the cockpit and situated herself on the rocket-seat, hesitating before starting the star-racer. There was a few seconds' worth of loud sputtering sounds from the reactors before the power was cut, with Molly coming back down looking sullen.

"Okay, I'm no mechanic, but that didn't sound good," Jordan said, having winced at the sound.

"It didn't," Koji agreed, shoulders slumping. Some heavy-duty repairs were obviously needed, which would take at least a whole day's worth of work. Which they didn't have. Or wouldn't have had.

Stan thought it wouldn't make much sense for the second round of the playoffs to go on so soon after _last night_.

Shiro exhaled slowly. "Alright, so we'll have to make do with anything that's nearby."

"Like what?" Stan asked, looking around again. The beach was pretty featureless aside from a hollows in the ground, the nearest being a few meters away. They were soon shown to actually be geysers, with a spray of hot (Stan could tell as much from a short distance) water shooting out of one of them without warning.

The cliff they'd raced off of the night before was just as much of a veritable blank slate, except for various patches of moss and ivy clinging to the rock. There were a few overhangs that looked somewhat promising, but they weren't that inconspicuous.

Molly was looking at another one just ahead, stopping and doing a double-take before she could walk away from it before calling "Hey, I think I found something!"

It took Stan a few seconds to notice it, but once he did, he was wondering how he _hadn't_ —built up against and partially into the cliffside was what looked like an old shack of some kind.

The outside portion looked like it had been constructed out of driftwood, which had since had provided a structure for some creeping vines, so it blended in for the most part. It also must have been there for a while, with how the makeshift door came right off its hinges with a small shower of rust flakes when Shiro went to open it.

The shack didn't feature much inside, save for a bed in one corner and what looked like had once been a table near the doorway. In another corner was a small circle of rocks, with some ashes in the middle, and small pieces of charcoal. There wasn't a conventional floor, either; it was all sand.

"Did someone used to live out here?" Molly asked, poking around by the rocks.

"Sure looks that way." Stan's attention was more or less on the back wall—there was a sheet pinned against the rock that was only noticeable because it looked both threadbare and moth-eaten at this point. Behind it was a crevice that led further into the cliff, which Shiro ducked into after a moment.

"It looks like this is some kind of tunnel," he called back. "It might be worth checking out."

"If you say so," Jordan said with a small shrug, though he paused before adding "Hang on a second," and running back out.

"Wha'—Jordan, what are you…?" Molly trailed off at seeing, and Stan went to help when he realized what the gunner was doing. That the tarp was a sandy color was a bonus, but the dried-up seaweed lobbed over it would hopefully make the star-racer blend into the beach better when seen from above.

 _Let's just hope no one comes out here on a hike or something,_ Stan thought once satisfied with the makeshift cover, making sure to grab the flashlights before going back to the others.

"Think that'll be good enough?" Jordan asked.

"It should be." Shiro blinked a few times in quick succession before adding "Those ships—they're drone-piloted."

While the tunnel did widen a little, it was still narrow to the point where they had to walk in a single-file line, which led to a brief pileup when the pathway abruptly turned a one-eighty, leading deeper into the ground. The air also became more humid further down, with water dripping from the ceiling.

"We must be under the ocean now," Koji observed, followed by a warning from Shiro about the path angling upwards again.

 _That rock better be thick then,_ Stan thought, eyeing a spot where the water was trickling down the side of the tunnel wall in a steady miniature stream.

Finally, the tunnel led out to an open space, with a single skylight in the roof providing some early-morning light. "It's a boring old cave with nothing in it," Jordan summed up. "I guess it'll work."

Molly scanned the walls, frowning a little, but before Stan could ask, she said "You call that nothing?" while gesturing to the back wall, which was strangely void of any residue.

There was something etched into the stone: a jumble of swirls toward the bottom, angular spots near the top, and between them a defined shape surrounded by curved lines.

Either it was just him, or it was illustrating something having fallen from space and into the ocean.

Jordan blinked at it before admitting "Alright, so that's _not_ nothing," and stepped forward to look at it more closely, squinting at the centerpiece of it for a few seconds. "Wait a second, is that a _cat_?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Stan dismissed, before taking another look at it. A head with small vaguely-triangular shapes for ears, four legs, and a tail were easily recognizable.

In short, yes, it actually _did_ look vaguely like a cat.

"But they don't have cats on Alwas," Molly said, face scrunched up in confusion. "Do they?"

"They don't," Koji confirmed. "At least—not that I've seen anywhere."

Jordan stared at the maybe-a-cat some more, before looking toward the top of the picture and pointing. "Hey, what's that one up there supposed to be?"

Stan hadn't noticed the topmost part of it until Jordan had pointed it out, given that it was actually on the ceiling. It was circular, outlined by an intricate design, though there were also jagged lines radiating from it. "Maybe the sun?" Stan suggested, shrugging a bit.

"I don't think so." Koji had taken a step back to get a better look at the entire thing. "The rest of it makes it look like the middle of the night."

"Whoever was living in that shack before tried hiding this," Shiro mused. "But _why_?"

Jordan shrugged. "Maybe they just wanted to keep the weird old cave art to themselves?"

Molly rolled her eyes. "Jordan, just because you don't get it doesn't mean it's weird." She paused. "Wait…I think—I think it's supposed to be a ship."

"A _what_?" Jordan exclaimed disbelievingly. "Molly, you saw what the Scrubs' star-racer looked like! There's _no way_ they'd be able to put together something like that."

"I'm serious, look at it! Here, lemme just…" She reached to brush some dirt off of the image of the cat-carving, which had two immediate effects.

One, Stan could now make out the subtler details on it, including small indented circles where the cat's leg-joints would be, and ridges along the middle of its body.

Two, the carvings all lit up a vivid hue of crimson. "Oh, well that's— _different_ ," Koji stammered out, looking around.

Then Stan felt the ground shift underfoot, coinciding with an ominous cracking sound. He was pretty sure all five of them had similar expressions before it gave way altogether.

It wasn't an out-and-out _fall_ , but more of an extremely steep slide through near-total darkness that lasted maybe ten seconds. The good news was that whatever lined the ground of where they were now was soft enough to prevent any further injuries.

The bad news was that whatever it was also went up in a billowy cloud, which sent them all into a coughing fit. "Is everyone alright?" Shiro asked after he stopped coughing, the words sounding hoarse.

"Just peachy," Jordan replied sarcastically, and a shuffling sound implied that he was standing up now. "Of all the movie tropes to happen in real-life, it just _had_ to be the collapsing floor one!"

"How was I supposed to know that would happen?" Molly grumbled, before picking up and turning on one of the flashlights. It took a bit of fumbling for Stan to find the other one, which also still worked.

There was a gaping hole above them, which he assumed was where they'd come from, and a brief investigation of the cavern showed a tunnel off to one side. "Looks like we're going that way," Stan shrugged when Koji pointed it out.

The damp chill in the air wasn't any better in this tunnel, even though there was a distinct lack of water anywhere, like the cavern with the carvings. "How far does this one go?" Jordan asked, pausing.

"There's only one way to find out," Molly said, brushing ahead of Shiro. "C'mon guys, there's gotta be _something_ —"

She broke off with a sharp exclamation right after the man had attempted to pull her back before she could step over the hole in the ground; not in time, though the drop was thankfully short, with a splash being heard seconds after. "Molly, are you okay?" Jordan called anxiously.

"Ugh…yeah, just wet," was her disgruntled response. A quieter "Huh?" followed, before "Whoa…guys, come look at _this_!" Below the tunnel was another cavern that looked a lot more spacious. And somehow better-lit with a reddish hue, not unlike the one the carvings above had lit up with.

That by itself got Stan wondering just what was down there, so he carefully jumped down—and he promptly went slack-jawed when he saw it. A series of light thudding sounds signaled the others also coming down. Koji gasped a bit, and Stan saw Shiro lurch forward a bit, stopping abruptly with a sharp wince.

"Look at the _size_ of that thing!" Jordan exclaimed, throwing his hands up a bit for emphasis. "It's huge!"

 _It_ was the single most detailed mechanical construct Stan had ever seen until then. It was primarily red in color, and while the paint-job was a little scratched-up here and there, it looked practically like it had just been put together—and like the main feature of the engravings in the cavern probably far above them now, it was _obviously a cat_ , right down to having a black-colored nose.

And _huge_ was an understatement. It had to have been at least the size of their team's pit, but if Stan had to guess, it was probably bigger.

"This is what they're looking for," Shiro said abruptly. "I'm sure of it."

"A giant robot cat?" Koji sounded about as bemused as Stan was feeling at that. Then again, the construct's "claws" looked pretty damn sharp. And it was either just him, or it had thrusters on the sides of its back legs, which implied that it was airworthy as well.

"Lion," Shiro corrected after a few drawn-out seconds. "It's a lion."

"Giant alien weapon shaped like a lion. Yeah, that makes a _perfect_ amount of sense," Jordan muttered with no shortage of sarcasm, earning a withering look from Molly; it prompted him to add "Do they even _have_ lions on other planets?"

She paused, before shrugging. "I guess so?"

Cautiously, they all approached the metal lion, stopping in front of the dome of red lights segmented into hexagons encasing it. The light cast off from the barrier reflected off of the water and back onto the lion, in a way that seemed wrong somehow. It also had the added effect of the lion's yellow eyes glinting, as if it were alive.

Wait, scratch that. Its eyes were glowing.

Koji flicked a pebble at the light-wall after a moment of hesitating, which bounced off with a faint pulsing sound. "Well, it's definitely some kind of barrier. I've never seen anything even _remotely_ like it, though."

"Think there's a way through it?" Stan asked, eyeing the construct again. Whoever had built it had been meticulous with their details.

"Maybe if we tried digging under it?"

"That'd take forever," Molly dismissed, moving to rest one hand against the barrier—and in retrospect, something had been downright _bizarre_ in regards to her being the catalyst to everything leading up to that moment.

First, the barrier dissipated with very little warning, with more previously-unnoticed engravings on the ground flaring brightly like the ones above had. Second, the lion's eyes flashed, sharp and bright like a searchlight cutting through smoke. And third: the next thing Stan knew, he was somewhere else altogether.

If only mentally.

* * *

What Don was first aware of was that he had a pounding headache, and that he was lying prone on a cold, hard surface, which had a low hum vibrating through it.

Following that was being able to hear a cacophony of voices, tones varying between terrified, furious and every possible in-between, but _not_ being able to understand any of it. That in itself indicated something happened to his translator.

No sooner did he push himself up onto his knees did he hear someone ask "You awake finally?" Rick was sitting by the opposite wall, somewhat bruised and battered, and one of the lens of his shades was chipped.

It wasn't just the two of them, either. Don recognized the Wetanian (Para-Dice, if he remembered correctly) easily enough, wide-eyed and huddled in the corner by Rick, as well as who he recognized as the pilot of the team from the planet Atterix; the feline/avian alien returned the gaze evenly before saying something indecipherable with a small sigh.

"Rick, what happened?" Don asked. His translator was simply _gone_ , now that he checked.

"Shiro's _friends_ dropped by," was the near-toneless response. "They don't seem to care too much for the race."

 _Clearly,_ Don thought sardonically, moving to stand. He was promptly informed that he had a twisted ankle, hissing in a breath to stop himself from cursing. "Anyways, you were out since before I got tossed in here," Rick went on. "You remember anything?"

"Not much." Don recalled going to arrange for Takashi's transportation back to Earth, but before he could even get to the port…something had exploded, or something along those lines, and beyond that was a blur. But there _was_ something else now. "Rick, where are the others?"

"I told Molly to take the others in the _Arrow_ and get out of there, and she did. Aside from that, I don't know, but I don't think they're here. I haven't heard any of them."

That could mean one of at least three very different things. Rick was right and they weren't here, they were just too far away from where they were to be heard, or…

Don didn't let that thought finish. Molly was reckless—that much was _transparent_ —but she was far from careless when the safety of the team was in question.

"One other thing." The former champion's voice lowered considerably now, and he glanced toward what looked like a door before saying "I don't think we're on Alwas anymore."

 _Something worse,_ the president had said.

* * *

It had hit hard and fast enough to knock the breath out of her, even though nothing had _physically_ hit her at all—an imagery barrage of five lights and white fire, burning as intensely as actual flames would—and then it stopped just as suddenly as it had started.

"Am I the only one who saw that?" Jordan asked, his voice sounding higher-pitched than usual. He looked something past disconcerted when Eva glanced over her shoulder at him and the others.

"If by _that_ , you mean that—that hallucination, then no," was all Stan said, looking up at the thing they'd found again.

"This is it," Shiro breathed. "It has to be."

Then there was a loud metallic creak from above them, which was from the lion moving to lower its head to the ground; its mouth opened to let a ramp fold down, showing a port in the back.

If that wasn't an invitation, Eva didn't know what was. She'd taken barely three steps up the ramp before Jordan cut in with "Uh, Molly? I'm not sure that's a good idea—we don't even know what this thing is!"

She turned to look back at the others. "It's a giant robot lion. I figured that'd be obvious!"

"But it just _moved by itself_!"

"He has a point," Koji cautioned, having stepped behind Stan the moment the lion had moved.

She stifled an annoyed groan. _Whatever._ They'd just given her a golden opportunity, and she was going to take it. "C'mon guys, don't be scaredy-cats!"

There was a long pause, before Stan deadpanned "You did _not_."

Shiro, meanwhile, chuckled a bit before also starting up the ramp. Jordan sputtered a little in protest, going silent when Stan and Koji, who'd just exchanged a cautious look before following, passed by.

Beyond the entryway was an open room with glowing red highlights in a few places, such as by what looked like a bunk, and near two different doors—two on the side walls and one in the back.

One of the former slid open at being approached, leading up a two-part stairway that made two sharp turns the way up; the space above featured only a double-set of doors, which opened to reveal a smaller room, which featured a few offline consoles and a chair set in front of a set of control sticks and pedals. "It _is_ a ship," she exclaimed quietly, half to herself.

"Okay, we looked at it," Jordan said, glancing around. "Now can we—Molly _now_ what are you doing?"

"I bet we can use this baby to find a way out of here," Eva replied cheerfully, situating herself in the pilot seat. She could reach both the handles and pedals with ease, which was a plus. Heck, she'd almost say that it had been fitted specifically for her.

There was an electronic buzzing sound as the screens all came to life, highlighted bright crimson. The larger panels in front of the seat blinked a few times, before revealing an 180-degree view of the cavern outside, with a HUD overlay of some sort on top of it. One of the back consoles began running through a few screens which _looked_ like startup diagnostics, but she couldn't be sure, given that it was in an alien language.

"Oh wow," Koji exclaimed quietly, stumbling forward. "The control panel's _holographic_. There's only prototypes of those back on Earth!" He started to reach for one of the keys, though Eva made a halfhearted attempt at swatting his hand away while looking it over some more.

They were in a ninety-foot-tall lion-shaped ship that was painted bright red—definitely unusual, but she wasn't complaining.

It was also apparently what the Galra came to Alwas looking for.

She didn't know why _exactly_ they wanted this guy so badly, supposedly being a weapon aside, but she found him first, and wasn't about to give him up anytime soon.

But how exactly was she supposed to get him moving? Eva looked at the different screens, before noticing one serious problem: the screens being all labeled in an alien language aside, none of the buttons on the front console had _any_ sort of distinguishing marks. She scowled at them for a few seconds, before deciding to wing it, pressing a few random keys.

The lion adjusted in place, head now angled up towards the slant in the ceiling. There was some light filtering in there, so the stone couldn't be very thick.

A low rumbling sound came from somewhere in the ship, sounding vaguely like a purr—presumably the engine warming up—and her fingers curled reflexively around the handles.

 _That's our way out._

"Oh, I know that look," Jordan moaned, gripping the back of the seat, right before Eva shoved both of the control sticks forward.

There was always a few seconds before the _Arrow_ reacted to her pressing down on the pedal a bit more to go faster. The same went for the rocket-seat. It was a limitation shared by almost every vehicle on Earth.

The lion obviously did _not_ have that limitation, because it reacted _immediately_.

One second she'd moved the handle, the next the it was lunging upwards, crashing through the rock with barely any resistance, a fountain of debris spraying into the air. So no, she really _couldn't_ blame Jordan for reacting like that.

Insane reaction time aside, the sheer _speed_ of the lion was breathtaking. A few smaller islands and rock formations were barely even blursgoing by at that speed, but at the same time Eva was having no problems at all in redirecting the ship.

An edge, a clockwise roll, even a backflip—and that was something she wouldn't be able to pull off very easily in the _Arrow_. Then there was a shout of "M-Molly slow down!" from Stan, almost right next to her ear, and she jumped a bit. She'd almost forgotten the others were there until then—and then her mind backpedaled to the person who'd drilled the first two tricks into her head before the race against Super-Racer (AKA Satis).

The lion was brought to an abrupt stop, and she was vaguely aware of it turning toward the general direction of the still-present smoke, before she felt a weight on her shoulder.

Eva didn't have to look to know it was Shiro, since metal was heavier. "Hold on a second," he said carefully. "Just charging in there wouldn't be a good idea."

"Why not? I think this guy's a lot bigger than those tin-cans from last night," she challenged.

Shiro shook his head. "That won't matter if there's a lot of them. They're going to throw everything they have at us as soon as they notice the lion."

 _They might've already noticed us,_ part of her realized, and she bit her lip. "Well, what're we supposed to do then?"

"First, we have to draw them away from the planet."

"Okay, that sounds great, but _how_ are we supposed to do that?" Jordan asked.

"We go up." Something about the way Shiro said that left Eva feeling apprehensive.

"Up?" Stan repeated, confused.

"Up. Into space."

 _Wait,_ what _?_

Eva looked around at all the monitors again. Being in an alien language notwithstanding…they all looked a _lot_ more complicated than anything the _Arrow_ had in the cockpit. Judging by the way both Stan and Koji were looking at them too, it was the same regarding the ones meant for the control room.

Then again, the _Arrow II_ was a star-racer. The lion was obviously _not_ a star-racer.

Then the meaning of _what exactly_ _Shiro just said_ hit her.

"We can't leave," she blurted, shaking her head. "The others—they're still down there somewhere!" Oh no, Eva did _not_ chase her dad halfway across the galaxy just to leave him behind.

Shiro took a deep breath. "Molly, I understand that you're worried about them, but everyone on the planet is in danger as long as the Galra are here."

"Then we'll just have to be really quick about looking!" The lion flew towards the smoke, slowing as they got closer to the pit area—and no sooner were they past the first smoke plume that Eva was abruptly reminded that the gray ships from last night hadn't gone anywhere.

Which was to say, all five of the ones in the air above the buildings pivoted and started firing; she let out a surprised yelp before maneuvering the ship in a clockwise spiral around the laser blasts. She heard a _thunk_ coincide with a grunt from one of the others, followed by Koji saying " _Please_ try to fly straight," shakily.

Eva _wanted_ to say that she couldn't really fly straight while they had five different things trying to shoot them out of the sky, but at the same time…flying this ship was kind of like flying the _Arrow_ , but it was also like trying to hold smoke.

It was almost like there was a silent voice urging _move-move-move_ in the back of her head, even though she couldn't hear anything.

"Isn't this thing supposed to be a weapon?" Jordan exclaimed, stumbling forward to look at the control panel. "Does it have lasers or anything?"

It was coincidentally at that moment that Eva noticed the buttons on the inner sides of the control sticks. She shrugged mentally before pressing one—and flinched instinctively when a blue ray of light streaked away from the lion and hit one of the gray ships directly, causing it to go up in a cloud of fire and smoke. Jordan whistled a bit appreciatively after the other four went down the same way.

Eva remembered Shiro saying that those things were either remotely-piloted or handled by robots. It had been a little obvious with how they hadn't reacted to the first one exploding.

Either way, she wasn't really thinking about that, and had pushed the actions out of mind as soon as they'd been done.

No matter where she looked and how long she stared, the souk was all but deserted. She didn't see anything moving in the general vicinity of all the team pits, either.

"They might be somewhere away from here," Shiro noted quietly. "But we don't have time to check."

"But I…" The words died in her throat when a thought struck her. Parts of the souk were still on fire. More than a few of the pits also had smoke coming up from them. And that wasn't saying anything about the pieces of mismatched metal she could make out all over the place—or the pits that had all but collapsed.

"Wouldn't—wouldn't leaving Alwas take us out of the race?"

Silence met her words for a few moments, before Stan said "I think the race is as good as over for everyone here."

Today was supposed to be the third round of the playoffs, but there wasn't a soul in sight. Not even at the debris-littered starting area.

"Molly?" Jordan started tentatively. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she lied, shaking her head. "So…this guy can go up into space?"

"Yes," Shiro replied with some certainty.

Eva hadn't really ever considered the idea that she'd end up flying a ship in space, but life had been throwing a lot of screwballs at her lately.

This particular screwball had a nagging sort of _finality_ to it that she wasn't sure she liked.

"What about the _Arrow_?" she asked. "I mean—I just…feel like we might not be coming back here anytime soon."

Stan and Koji both froze. "We're not leaving her here, that's for sure," the former said sharply after a few seconds.

"I don't like that idea either," Koji started, grimacing. "But _how_ are we going to—?" He stopped abruptly when a new monitor appeared without warning, showing what looked like an empty cargo bay.

"Would that work?" Shiro asked, after a confused pause. _How did that happen?_

"It looks like it _should_ be," Stan replied after a few seconds of staring at the screen. "I say it's worth a shot." His tone suggested that he actually wasn't sure. Neither was Eva, for that matter.

With that, the lion was brought back to the shoreline, touching down just over where their star-racer was. Eva looked over the keypad, head tilting slightly to the side as she thought it over. None of them had labels, but one of the smaller ones toward the left side just seemed _promising_ somehow.

An experimental press resulted in the bay doors opening, and a crimson-hued light similar to the gold one that the Avatar's ship had used to pick the team up back on Earth. The _Arrow_ was promptly lifted into the hangar, tarp covering and all.

A metallic scraping sound was heard from over the video feed, and Eva clearly saw sparks coming off from the sides of the _Arrow_ 's reactors. "Well…it fits," Koji said faintly, while Stan muttered something vehemently under his breath that sounded like it included a curse or two.

The sky was a flat gray color at this point in the morning, going on and on in all directions. Eva gripped the controls a bit tighter, taking a deep breath. _Here goes nothing._

The lion leaped into the air like it was pouncing on an invisible foe, breaking the sound barrier with ease when she pushed the handles forward a little more—the sky steadily darkened from gray to black as they ascended. For a short time, the lion levelled out so that they could look back at the planet below.

Alwas was mostly ocean, and there were a few other, smaller bunches of islands scattered on the expanse of blue. Both of the moons could be seen from where the lion was floating as well. It was surreal, almost.

Then Eva heard Shiro hiss in a breath, and saw that he was staring at something else off to the side, specifically, a ship. A _very big_ ship, gray in color with mauve highlights, not entirely unlike the ship Shiro had crashed to Alwas in. One of the side-consoles beeped, and a screen appeared on the front display.

It had the effect of making Eva very acutely aware of the fact that even though the seat and everything was adjusted for her, it was still obviously meant for someone taller. The alien on the other end of the video probably rivaled a Crog in height, though this one had a much slimmer build and was purple in color, being vaguely catlike. Height wasn't the only thing they had in common with Crogs, though; their eyes were the same flat yellow.

She didn't understand a word he said, but she recognized it—and so did Shiro, of course, given that he'd replied in kind in a low voice. One of the alien's (Galran's?) eyes twitched, his expression twisting into something furious before the screen vanished.

Coinciding with that was an alarm starting to sound, alongside a new display overlaying the distant ship, many parts lighting up with warning flags. Not to mention the arrangement toward the front of the ship that was just started to turn to face the lion.

"What exactly did you just say to him?" Jordan asked.

"Get us out of here," was all Shiro said in response. Normally, Eva would've protested at the tone he'd used by itself, but the fact that the thing now starting to light up ominously looked like a _very big cannon_ made for a good reason not to.

She pulled the handles to the side just in time—the laser that came from that cannon was _at least_ the same circumference as the scoring wheel.

It was a close-enough miss to light the cockpit up bright violet instead of red, and there was a faint " _Please_ don't get us vaporized," from Stan, barely heard over two screams—one was definitely Jordan, and the other sounded like it had been Koji; if Eva had to guess, he was also the owner of the set of nails currently digging into her shoulder.

The near-miss left Eva's heart racing, and was _more than enough_ of an incentive to pick a random direction and fly in it.

"Uh, Molly?" Jordan started, his voice cracking a little. "Where are we even going?"

"You think I know anything about flying in space?" she retorted, not taking her eyes off the front screen. Looking at the side monitors wouldn't do any good—she couldn't even tell if they were reading out letters or numbers—and one of them was only showing that they were being followed.

For a few seconds, he looked like he was going to snap back at her, but he instead looked past her, eyes widening. "Whoa, h-hang on a second. Where are we?"

The lion had slowed just a bit, the surrounding space being filled with asteroids which were easily avoided, and there was a small, dusty-orange planet off in the distance.

Shiro looked at it for a few moments, before hesitantly saying "I think that's Elpis."

" _Elpis_?" Jordan blurted, sounding more shocked now. "But that's—that's almost all the way back to Earth! It—and it was in the _opposite direction_ from Alwas!"

That bombshell aside (forget earlier, this guy was quick on a whole new level!) something had Eva look off to the side, coinciding with both a rush of eagerness that felt _off_ somehow and a flash of blue light in the distance.

Hovering squarely between two asteroids was what looked like a sphere of iridescent shadow, encircled by an azure ring with faint patterns around it.

Eva didn't know what it was. At least, she was pretty sure she didn't know—something twitched in the back of her head at seeing it, wholly intent on going to ( _through_ ) whatever it was.

Everything seemed to slow for a few moments while she considered the options. They _could_ keep flying, but they'd also keep getting chased. And even if they did somehow manage to give the Galran the slip…

 _"Any wish,"_ Para-Dice had said.

 _I guess it really was just a dream, then._

Eva shut her eyes tightly, thinking _Sorry dad,_ before turning the lion in a near-ninety-degree angle, and flying right into the sphere.

* * *

It was raining again by the time the air was finally clear of smoke, and a few flickers of light faintly visible in the sky was the one clear signal of the source of everyone's distress finally leaving. _Good riddance,_ Satis thought with a derisive snort, before taking in the sight of his surroundings. He sighed heavily. "What a mess."

A mess indeed—there were more than a few scorch marks and craters pockmarking the landscape now, and a portion of the souk had burned down during the night.

The unpleasant view could be seen with some relative ease from where Satis was sitting on the roof of the Earth Team's pit. The fourth floor of the housing tower had collapsed into the third due to structural damage, but it was still standing. The same couldn't be said for many of the other similar structures.

Now that the ones who had caused the destruction are gone, some Scrubs and other team members were slowly creeping out of their hiding places, staring around with wide, fearful eyes.

None of them were pilots themselves. The pilots had all been taken away, their star-racers either also taken with them, or outright destroyed.

The Scrubs' attitude toward otherworldly visitors was doubtlessly going to take a catastrophic hit because of last night's events…and _nothing could be done about it_.

That order had been griped about, loudly and vehemently, but it could change nothing by this point.

There would only be six finalists reaching Ōban as a result of all this, but so long as there were finalists to begin with….

He shook his head. _No point in thinking about could-haves._ At this point, all he could do was hope that Molly and her friends fared well during the plights they'd doubtlessly be facing.

They'd all just inherited a _far_ bigger mess than the one they'd just left behind, after all.

* * *

Of the years that Horace McMullen had been the President of the Earth Coalition, he'd been faced with a situation like this only once before, nearly a year ago now.

Even then, the present situation knocked that one clear out of the metaphorical ballpark.

"What in the Sam Hill even _is_ that?" Commander Iverson asked, leaning toward the image display captured by one of the satellites near planet Elpis.

Delegate Zanni pursed her lips before replying, _"We're not entirely sure, aside from the fact that it looks like a—well, a red lion."_

The displayed image beside the holographic feed showing the representative from the Elpis colony had been captured by one of the three sentry-satellites positioned around the planet, intended to keep a lookout for any sort of hostile force and collect images of anything that tripped their sensors.

The president could make out Elpis itself in the distance, off in one corner, and the lion-ship itself in the center, being lit from the front by a blue sheen. "And the energy source?" he pressed.

Zanni shrugged. _"We haven't been able to identify that yet either. All we know is that the lion flew into the source, and disappeared right after."_ She paused, before adding _"The other vessel left the system after that."_

"Is there an image for the other vessel, delegate?" Admiral Sanda spoke up.

There was a long pause, before a solemn _"Yes ma'am, there is,"_ preceded the image displayed changing. There was a collective intake of breath throughout the room, and despite his experience, Horace had to stifle a shudder.

"God, look at the _size_ of it," one of the present generals breathed, voice hoarse. The second vessel was clearly larger than anything they had, and it was likely that the Crogs had come to that same conclusion, given the reports of the known lurking scouts retreating back towards their homeworld. To what end, Horace didn't know.

"Delegate, are you _certain_ it was heading out of the system?" Sanda asked, voice hardening.

 _"So long as it didn't change course once it left our scanners' range."_

In other words, she didn't know.

"Stay on alert, and report immediately if there are any signs of it returning," Horace ordered. The delegate saluted, and the interlink went dark.  
There was a heavy sigh from Iverson. "Peacetimes just can't last, can they."

"Apparently not. Commander, I want you to shift more efforts into training new fighter pilots—we're going to need them. You're all dismissed."

The room was vacated, though Horace remained. After a minute, he reached to activate the interlink again, this time hailing a different one.

The device returned a _"Connection Failed"_ message once again, and he put a hand to his face. Of all the _possible_ things to have gone wrong, and it wasn't even the Crogs at fault this time.

It could be that the communication window between Earth and Alwas simply wasn't there at the time, but the sheer number of SOS signals determined to be from the latter planet had grave implications, as did the detail of both unknown ships having come from that direction.

One year ago, a three-man mission to Pluto's moon Kerberos—comprised of Commander Samuel Holt, his son Matthew Holt, and star pilot Lieutenant Takashi Shirogane—had vanished in deep-space, with the only clue being a lingering energy signature that matched the second ship's almost exactly.

He had not shown a single sign of it, but when Don Wei had reported that the lieutenant had crash-landed on Alwas, he was distinctly somewhere between surprised, relieved, and afraid.

He would try contacting their representing team one last time in a few hours. If there was still no response, he would look into authorizing a team to go out to Alwas, interplanetary treaty be damned.

Horace's time as the Coalition's president had come after the war with the Crogs had ended.

He didn't once even begin to suspect that his term would involve humanity coming into contact with something that had the potential to overshadow that.

* * *

(endnote)

-I'm expanding on a detail from OSR Ep22 (Revelations) in that the Whizzing Arrow has a small storage compartment reserved for emergency supplies. Because they had to get that tarp and flashlights from somewhere, right?

-for this fic, given that nothing was stated in the show regarding it, Stan and Koji are 23 and 21 respectively age-wise.


	3. Change

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Change**

Jordan was pretty sure that Molly's latest stunt almost gave him heart failure, given that they didn't even know what that freaky blue thing even _was_ —hell, he hadn't even _seen_ it until she'd turned the lion-ship to fly right into it.

The inside of it was the same color as the outside, but he couldn't tell much more than that since it felt like being in the _Arrow_ 's turret with the hyperdrive engaged; he'd had to grab onto the back of the chair along with Shiro to keep himself from being thrown backwards.

It ended as abruptly as it started after several seconds, with inertia kicking in and making his face hit the chair hard enough to send stars flying across his vision.

To the side, he heard Stan make a sound that was like something between a wheeze and a whimper before saying "Never do something like that again," in a rushed breath.

Molly didn't respond, and to the side, Shiro frowned a little before saying her name. She jolted roughly that time, blinking up at him before seeming to realize that she'd even been spoken to, before saying "I—it's nothing, I was just—wondering where we are now." There was a small pause before she added "You can let go anytime now," in a vaguely-reproachful tone, half-glaring to the side at Koji, who complied after a bit.

Their technician was still ashen-faced and shaking a little, and Stan moved to say something quietly to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

 _Where were they_. That was a good question. The larger ship that had been pursuing them was nowhere in sight, which was a relief to Jordan. Aside from open space around them, there was a single planet, blue and green with white clouds painted over its surface—in other words, not Elpis.

It wasn't Alwas, because there were no moons, and entirely too much landmass. The former detail ruled out it being Earth, too, along with the fact that there was only one visible continent.

Given that Jordan knew next to nothing about the geography of the other planets in the coalition—Elpis was an exception because of how unique it was—and honestly hadn't paid much attention to the starmap lessons, he had no idea where they were.

Shiro didn't look like he had any thoughts either, judging by his expression. "Molly, does the lion have a navigation system?"

"Um, let me check." She stared at the keypad, one hand hovering over the various buttons, before tapping one toward the right end of it. It prompted a new screen to show up on the front monitor, but it was in whatever alien language the ship is coded in.

"Do you recognize any of that?" Koji asked, some color having returned to his face.

"No," Shiro replied after another minute, brow furrowed. "Nothing. Wherever we are, it must be a long way from Earth."

 _Oh, wonderful,_ Jordan thought sarcastically, rolling his eyes a little. Then he stumbled when the ship jolted, suddenly pitching forward to dive down toward the planet below.

Any sort of remark he had in mind promptly petered out when he saw Molly pull back on the handles a few times, looking just as disconcerted as Jordan himself was feeling at the sudden movement. "Uh, Molly? What's…?" he started anxiously.

"I don't know, it's like it's on autopilot or something," she said, giving up on the handles and looking up at the screens instead.

"How, though?" Stan sounded exasperated at this point.

"I _just said_ I don't know!"

Flames washed over the outside display before it hit a layer of frosty white clouds, with the ship ceasing to shake after a few seconds. The landscape below was open fields, which transitioned into a more desert-like area to one side, a mountain range to another, and a forest in a third.

There was also a rugged-looking coastline, with a few high cliffs—and sitting on the largest one was a gleaming white building with cyan highlights (kind of like the lion's, actually) and matte-black accents, having four bordering towers following the same color-scheme.

The lion made a beeline for the courtyard in front of what looked like the main entrance, lowering its head to the ground upon landing. There was a long pause, before there was an uncertain "Maybe it has some kind of AI?" from Koji. "And—and this place had a homing beacon for it?"

"Whatever the case, the lion seems to know more than we do right now," Shiro said. "If it brought us here, there has to be a reason for it."

They'd dealt with glowing cave-carvings, found a giant red lion-ship, went through a maybe-wormhole—and now they were in front of some alien castle-looking building in the middle of nowhere. The aforementioned building also absolutely _dwarfed_ the lion.

Jordan had a nagging feeling that today was going to be outlandish enough to put the past week or so to _shame_.

The stone tiling of the courtyard was weathered, with weeds growing between the cracks, and a breeze coming in from the ocean countered what felt like summer heat. Aside from the wind and the distant sound of the ocean hitting the shoreline, it was quiet.

A little _too_ quiet, in Jordan's opinion. At least, until the lion-ship stood up straight and let out a deafening _roar_ , staggering all of them and leaving Jordan's ears ringing. It had the additional effect of making the door open, somehow.

"Okay, am I the only one starting to get creeped out by that thing?" Jordan asked, throwing a suspicious look over his shoulder at the lion. (It didn't react, of course.) No one answered verbally, but both Stan and Koji looked about as uneasy as Jordan was feeling. There wasn't anyone in the lion right now, so how had it done that?

Maybe it was an AI, like Koji said.

Or maybe it was haunted. _It better not be haunted._

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Molly asked before starting in. Shiro chuckled a little before following her, and that really didn't leave the rest of them with much of a choice.

In a case of _extreme_ contrast to the outside, the interior of the building was completely dark, and there was a thick coating of dust on everything. "What is this place, anyways?" Koji asked.

"I don't know, but there's bound to be someone in here somewhere," Shiro replied.

"You sure about that?" Stan sounded dubious as they reached the staircase at the end of the hall. "'cause it doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time."

Right on cue, a set of overhead lights blazed on, with a computerized voice intoning something that Jordan's translator didn't compute. It was followed a second, blue-tinged light washing over each of them, like some kind of scanner. After it faded, the hallway at the top of the stairs was lit up, too.

"I guess we're considered friendlies," Jordan shrugged a bit. The question was, was that a good thing?

The hallway led down a few stairways, and the patch branched off into other passages more than a few times, but those areas remained darkened. "This place is _huge_ ," Molly commented after a few minutes, when they passed by the fifth four-way intersection.

"I think you might be right about this place," Jordan remarked to Stan after another minute.

A fancy high-tech castle in the middle of nowhere with absolutely _no one_ inside of it? Yeah, he was _definitely_ getting a bad feeling about this.

"But why would the lion bring us here if it was?" Koji asked.

Jordan halted mid-step for a second. _Good question._

Eventually, the hall ended with a room that was mostly featureless, save for a small stand in the center of it, and eight circular hatches set in the floor. "Looks like a control room," Stan noted after a minute, stepping over to get a closer look at the device in the middle of the room.

"What does it do?" Molly asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Shiro moved to press the one visible key. The console blinked cyan a few times in response, and a hissing sound preceded two pod-shaped objects that slid out of the floor.

There was a long pause, before Stan said "I think those things have bodies in them."

" _What_?" Koji scrambled back a bit towards the entrance, with Molly looking like she was seriously debating on following him. Shiro was giving Stan a startled look, and Jordan swallowed reflexively when he noticed that Stan wasn't wrong—he could only make out vague silhouettes behind the opaque glass, but they were definitely humanoid.

 _Maybe_ he made something of an undignified sound when the glass of one of the pods abruptly dissolved, with the very-much-alive occupant stumbling out.

At first glance, she seemed human, head bowed and one hand on the edge of the pod to steady herself. Then Jordan noticed her ears, which made him think Nourasian…and then she lifted her head up to look at them, and he saw the pink markings under her eyes, which ruled _that_ out too.

The aforementioned eyes were a crystalline blue, catlike pupils being that same shade of mauve. Her silver hair stood out starkly with her darker skin, but she didn't look too much older than they were. The tiara and blue dress implied that she might have been nobility of some sort.

Her expression was completely blank for a total of two seconds before transitioning to shock, and then she readjusted her stance to a combative one, and snapped something in that same new mystery language.

"I, uh, didn't catch that," Molly said, putting her hands up slightly in a placating gesture.

It didn't seem like the alien understood what she said either, if her confounded expression was anything to go on, but she at least seemed to understand the gesture.

A few moments passed before her brow furrowed slightly, and she said something else, the syllables being _just_ different enough for Jordan to recognize it as yet another indecipherable alien language.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Stan fish a screwdriver out of his bag. It wouldn't be much of an emergency weapon if it came to it, and the alien's eyes were on it briefly, so it probably wouldn't do much good anyways.

The fourth mystery alien language sounded coarser than the others, and at that point, Jordan was fully convinced that whatever planet this was, it was in some backwater corner of the galaxy.

At that point, the alien regarded them all with obvious frustration, before exclaiming something that, while _still_ gibberish, apparently wasn't to Shiro, with how he jumped.

* * *

" _What exactly_ are _you, then_?"

That whoever this was spoke Galran was, in this case, a blessing, even if the enunciations were different from what Shiro had heard before.

Her attention had zeroed in on him when he'd started, eyes narrowing before saying " _You are not Galra_."

" _No_ ," he replied in turn. He didn't know much _concrete_ Galran. Bits and pieces heard enough times to make sense of over a year coalesced into a working vocabulary, he supposed.

She relaxed marginally, the narrow-eyed look being more quizzical now. " _Who are you, and where is King Alfor_?"

" _I don't know who that is._ " Better to get that one out of the way first. " _My name is Shiro_."

She'd paled in response to the first answer, but only momentarily, quickly vanishing under the professional look again, before saying " _I am Princess Allura of planet Altea. How did you get here_?"

Recognizing that the explanation that the story would need required words he didn't know, Shiro settled with " _We were brought here by a ship. The Red Lion_." The last part was an afterthought—the commander that had attacked them on Alwas had demanded that they surrendered the lion, referring to it with that name.

The princess went stone-faced before turning to the console, bringing a screen up and rapidly typing a few things on the holographic keyboard, which summoned a video feed of the courtyard outside. " _Were you the one who flew him_?" she asked, not looking away.

" _No. Molly did_."

Allura gave him another quizzical look, while Molly straightened a little at hearing her name. Noticing the movement, the princess looked over each of them, until her attention wandered more to the side, at the other pod.

She hurried over it, opening it without pause. From where Shiro was standing, he couldn't see that one's occupant—at least, not until there was a short scream, followed by the occupant launching himself toward Jordan, who ducked out of the way just in time.

He stumbled when he hit the floor with an exclamation of something that sounded like " _Quiznak_!" while windmilling his arms so that he managed to stay on his feet, whirling around to face them. There was frost coating his mustache, which was the same bright-orange as his hair.

The tirade he'd barely had a chance to start was interrupted by an amusedly-exasperated " _Coran_ ," from Allura.

There was a brief exchange between the two of them in the first language they'd heard from the building's computer system, presumably Altean.

The others were staying quiet, at least—from the corner of his eye, Shiro could see Jordan eyeing them both warily, and that Stan looked tense.

Allura stepped over to the computer console after a minute, while Coran (Shiro was guessing that was his name) turned his attention to them. " _Where did you come from_?" he asked, using the same form of Galran that Allura had spoken in.

" _We come from Earth_ ," Shiro replied. " _Though we were on a planet named Alwas before now_." Coran's eyebrows raised slightly at the mention of Alwas, and Allura stopped typing to look at them again, but there was no vocal interruption. " _The Lion was on Alwas, and the Galra were trying to find it_."

 _"They attacked?"_ Something like alarmed disbelief had crept into his tone there, but only momentarily.

Shiro nodded, which prompted Coran to ask something else, tone guarded and a touch uncertain—but the words used weren't ones Shiro knew. The most he got was that the question involved if a certain event was happening.

Then an idea struck him. " _I have a translation device_ ," he said carefully, reaching behind his neck to detach the object. It felt like pulling a bandage off, in terms of how it stung a bit, but the sensation faded after a bit.

Coran took the device swiftly, turning it over in his hands a few times in a way that indicated he knew his way around tech, before making the universal _wait-one-moment_ gesture and jogging over to a wall.

A blue screen appeared on a panel, and a light on the translator device blinked on for a few seconds, before Coran muttered something, sliding a part of the wall aside to show a few earpieces on a shelf. After seeming to count how many of them there were, before taking several and handing one to each of them.

A quiet " _Qu'est-ce_ _que_ _c'est_?" from Stan confirmed that the device really had been a translator, and might be what the earpiece was.

Aside from beeping twice after being put on, the earpiece didn't do anything—at least, until Coran said something else, and a small holographic screen appeared roughly a foot away from Shiro's face, reading "This is a temporary measure until the castle's translator figures out your language."

"It's a translator," Shiro said, glancing toward the others; he realized seconds later that they might not understand English, but only Jordan hesitated before putting the earpiece on after that.

"Right then, now that that's settled…the Galra—you say they _attacked_ Alwas?"

"Yes."

"But why were you there in the first place?" Allura asked.

"I'm not exactly sure how I got there, aside from being in a ship that crashed," Shiro admitted, giving a furtive sideways glance toward the other four.

Molly picked up where he left off, thankfully. "Jordan and I found Shiro after he crashed. We're…" She trailed off, face falling a bit before finishing, "We _were_ in the Pre-Selections, but then the Galra came in and wrecked the place, trying to find the lion, but we found it first." The translator worked for making out what the others said too, thankfully.

Allura's gaze sharpened. "The Pre-Selections," she repeated. "For the Great Race of Ōban?"

"Yeah," Stan affirmed. "We were in the playoffs, until—well, what she said."

"But that doesn't make any sense," the alien princess exclaimed. "The Pre-Selections ended phoebs ago!"

There was a quiet "Huh?" from Molly at that, along with a muttered "I think those things scrambled them," from Jordan.

"Ah, princess?" Coran started, having paled a few shades. "It actually _could_ make sense, if we were in the cryopods for as long as I think we might've been."

Allura stared at him for a few long moments, before whirling around to face the computer again, pulling up a new screen. Then she went rigid, a quiet, shaken "That's…impossible," being barely heard.

"Impossible, yet here we are."

Allura blinked once, twice, and seemed to physically wilt before saying "We've been asleep for almost ten-thousand decaphoebs."

* * *

The last time she had been on the bridge of the castle, Altea had been burning around them, a Galra fleet commanded by Zarkon himself closing in.

Altea no longer existed. Nalquod, Rygnirath, the entire Dalterion belt—all were now marked as uninhabited.

And to top it off, there was a nigh-on _incomprehensible_ amount of backlog of distress beacons, covering nearly the entire starmap.

"It's a bleak picture, I'll admit that," Coran said quietly from behind her.

A dry laugh escaped Allura. "Bleak is an understatement. There's two of us, the castle, and one Lion." She'd checked the other cryopods before leaving the infirmary—all empty. The only other living things in the room besides the two of them and the Earthlings were the four mice she'd occasionally seen around the kitchens; they'd somehow ended up in the same cryopod as Allura herself.

"One Lion's better than no Lions," Coran pointed out gently. "And we have a paladin for that Lion, too. It's a start."

She sighed. "I suppose you're right. What did my father do after…?"

"He transferred his connection to the Lions over to you. I'm not sure how, he didn't explain any of it. Then they were sent away."

 _Just as he said had to be done._

"He put a protocol in place for when a Lion became active, for the castle to use stored energy to create a wormhole from wherever it was to bring it here," Coran went on.

Allura tensed. "And if the Galra had been the ones to awaken a Lion?"

He smiled thinly. "I think it's best to not consider that." She nodded in agreement. It didn't happen, and that was what mattered.

There was a pause, before Coran exhaled quietly. "They actually interfered with the Great Race."

That revelation had caught Allura off-guard, being _disturbing_ at the least. Ōban, even if its existence hadn't been actually proven to them until her father had decoded some coordinates in an ancient ruin uncovered by pure chance on Altea, was a sacred place. As were the three planets closest to it.

That the Galra would even _consider_ launching an attack on one of them just proved how far they had fallen.

"Where are the others?" Allura asked.

"I told them to stay in one of the common rooms for the time being."

They were a new species to her. She'd initially thought them to be Altean, until she'd realized they'd lacked facial markings, and seen that their ears were different. Their eyes were generally duller in color as well, there only being one exception among them.

Not to mention the language she'd first heard from one of them was equally unfamiliar. It was no different with the second one; the rhythms to the words were just different enough for her to make that distinction.

It would take some time—hopefully not long, given that their translators had provided a base lexicon—for the castle's translator to decode what they said, so until then, they had to rely on the portable translators.

Allura looked over her shoulder at him. "The one that knows Galran—Shiro—said that the Red Lion's paladin was named…Molly, I think. Do you know which one that might be?"

"Well, I know as much about their kind as you do, which is to say nothing aside from what we saw a few doboshes ago. But given the _sound_ of the name, I'd say it's the young lady."

Allura dismissed the starmap without a word, starting down the hallway. The main doors opened as she approached, midday light streaming in, with a notable shadow cast by the Red Lion, who was defensive before she could even start.

She returned metaphorical fire with the vision of destruction she'd witnessed from the bridge before her father had sent her into unconsciousness. "You know _exactly_ what we're going to be going up against, and yet you bring a _child_?"

 _A child that has a natural talent for piloting_ was the Lion's counter. She has untapped potential.

"Potential means nothing if you don't live long enough to grow into it." The first ones to fall in the last attack on Altea had been the regiment that Commander Raible said had the most potential.

The Lion growled audibly, leaving Allura's ears ringing. There would be _nothing_ keeping him from protecting his paladin this time.

 _This time._

Allura looked up, meeting the Red Lion's eyes. "You wanted to stay?"

No response came, but the silence was an answer in itself. Her father must have had someone pilot the Red Lion away from Altea to safety—but the only other one that Red would even _consider_ allowing to pilot him would have been…

"Princess!"

Coran's voice jolted her out of her thoughts, and she turned to see him jogging over to her. "The good news is that, aside from all the diagnostic reports we'll have to sift through, a full system reboot of the castle is in progress."

"Good news?" she repeated, tensing.

Now he grimaced. "The bad news is that we've got a Galran battlecruiser heading straight for us."

" _What_?! How did they even find us?" Heat surged over the lines distinguishing herself from the Red Lion, in a way that should have felt alien, but the link had ten-thousand decaphoebs to settle.

"I'm not sure, but we have a few quintants before they get here. Give or take a varga."

Her breath caught in her throat. One battlecruiser could very easily turn into fifty, and they would need Voltron if that happened—but they were four Lions short of Voltron at the current tick.

"Coran, what should we do?"

"I'm not sure," he replied. "But I know someone who might have an idea."

Coran led her into one of the deeper parts of the castle, one of the few areas she didn't venture into very often, not saying a word until they'd nearly reached a single doorway at the end of one corridor. "Your father left this for you, in the event that things didn't end as well as he hoped."

Allura knew exactly what she was looking at even before it came online, the room's walls being replaced by a field of juniberry flowers, her father in the center of it.

 _"Allura. It's been far too long."_ King Alfor sounded weary, his smile bittersweet. If it weren't for the fact that he was a holographic projection, Allura would think it was really him.

"Father, I—I don't know what to do. A Galra ship is coming for us and we only have one Lion and five strangers who I can't even understand without a basic translation device."

 _"The basic translators is how we started off with the Eridians, don't forget,"_ was the wry comment given.

"I—guess I did forget that," she admitted, taking a deep breath. "But I don't know what to do now. The Galra's current leader is no better than Zarkon, if they interrupted the—"

 _"It still is Zarkon,"_ Alfor interrupted, his tone grave. _"The castle's picked up on enough public broadcasts for me to tell that much."_

"He's still alive?" Allura whispered, voice hoarse with disbelief. "But how?"

 _"I'm not sure, though I have my suspicions."_ Alfor cleared his throat quietly. _"Allura, listen to me. You were right, all those decaphoebs ago. I made a catastrophic mistake in scattering the Lions, one that's cost countless lives. You must be the one to assemble the Lions once more."_

"But how? We only have one paladin, and she's still a child."

 _"Then she must have made a very good impression for Red to pick her over everyone else on Alwas. He brought four others back with him, didn't he?"_

She realized where her father was going with this in a heartbeat. "Will the other Lions accept them?

There was a quiet sound in response. _"As much as I wish I could take this burden from you, you're going to have to be the one to make that call, Allura."_

* * *

Eva wasn't sure how much time had passed, just that it was long enough for it to probably be afternoon on Alwas. _We should've been racing right now,_ she thought, staring vacantly up at the ceiling. The room they were in now was easily the most retro non-photograph thing she'd ever seen, having a horseshoe-shaped couch set in the floor with a table in the middle and a screen against the opposing wall.

"Where the heck _are_ we, anyways?" Jordan asked finally, looking sideways at the rest of them from where he was sitting by the edge of the couch.

"I don't know, but we could ask either Allura or Coran when we see them again," Shiro replied. Jordan rolled his eyes a bit in response.

As if the mention of them had summoned them, the two Alteans stepped into the room. Allura had switched out her dress for a mostly-white outfit that had pink accents, and her hair was tied up in a bun now. "If the five of you could follow me, please," she said evenly.

(Eva had to remember to look at the screen that appeared just below her eye-level; she was quietly hoping that they wouldn't have to keep using these translators for long.)

They went up more than a few flights of stairs, enough to leave her feeling a little winded, until they'd reached a wider hall. Beyond the double-doors at the end of it was a dimly-lit room, which featured a large blue crystal affixed to the center of the ceiling. It lit up brighter when Allura stepped onto a slightly-raised part of the floor right below it.

"What's she doing?" Stan asked, looking sideways at Coran.

"Trying to locate the other Lions," was the response given—the way he said the word _lions_ implied that it was a capital-L.

Then Eva processed what exactly he'd just said. "Wait, there's more of them?"

"There are five in all," Allura replied, right as the entire room lit up. It looked like the navigation screen that the Lion outside had, except blue and three-dimensional, with five markers throughout the room.

One was just a darker blue and floating almost aimlessly in front of Allura, while the red and violet ones were practically on top of each other. The green and yellow ones were on opposite corners of the room. Paired with each marker was a hologram of each Lion.

Jordan squinted around the room before pointing out the detail of two of the markers being in the same place. "An astute observation. That's because the Black Lion is in the castle already," Allura said.

"She was kept in her hangar, so Zarkon wouldn't get to her," Coran elaborated. "But the hangar won't open until the Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green Lions are all present." Shiro had gone rigid off to the side at the mention of the name _Zarkon_ , but dismissed it quietly when Stan gave him a questioning look.

Red Lion. Not the most original name out there, but Eva liked it.

"Okay…so how are you gonna _get_ the other ones here?" Jordan sounded generally disinterested.

"I was just about to get to that." There was a steely glint in Allura's eyes now. "As you've already experienced, the Lions choose their pilots."

"How does that even work?" Koji asked. "Is it some kind of security measure, or…" He trailed off, seeming to realize something, before stuttering out "Uh—s-sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

She smiled in response. "That's a good question, though also one I can't exactly answer. My father understood how the Lions worked better than anyone else, but I _do_ know that each Lion looks for certain qualities in their pilot. The Black Lion, for example, requires a leader whose team will follow without question. The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality, and needs a pilot whose wit can complement her own.

"The Yellow Lion is the most caring of them—his pilot must be one who is willing to put the needs of others above their own. The Blue Lion is adventurous, and more prone to acting on her own whims; therefore, she calls for someone who is equally bold, and can readily adapt to whatever situation they find themselves in."

It all sounded pretty cool, though there was the nagging detail of the events surrounding them finding the Red Lion to begin with. They picked their own pilots—and everything leading up to them finding Red had only been triggered by her doing something. Something about that just wasn't adding up—and her train of thought was then broken by Shiro saying "You want us to pilot them."

Eva looked up sharply, now noticing that the holograms of the Lions had all drifted from their initial locations, with the one for the Black Lion now floating about five inches away from Shiro's face.

"H-Hold on a sec!" Stan exclaimed sharply, backing away from the Yellow Lion's image. "I never said _anything_ about agreeing to this!"

Koji stammered some nonsense that ended in "But I'm just a mechanic!" before holding his tablet up, trying to keep it between him and the model of the Green Lion.

Jordan stared at the Blue Lion's hologram for a few seconds, face paling while muttering "But I'm not a—" Then the words seemed to sink in, with him shaking his head before saying "You _really_ don't want me in that thing! It _will_ end badly! Uh, M-Molly, back us up here!"

"He has a point," she said, remembering Jordan's near-disaster of an attempt at flying the _Arrow_. "We're just a racing team."

"That may be so, Number Five…" Coran paused, glancing up at her (he'd practically bent at the hip to hold a hand flat near the top of her head) before adding, "I have you all ranked by height, but nonetheless—am I correct in guessing you flew the Red Lion?"

"W-Well…yeah, but—"

"That means it that even with a large selection of pilots to choose from, he picked you over everyone else in the competition. And given how temperamental he is, that's saying something about your skill!"

Despite the situation, Eva felt herself puff up a bit at the compliment, and while she was putting some conscious thought in keeping a smile down, she felt the bridge of her nose go a bit warm. She wasn't used to people directly telling her she was a good pilot, least of all a stranger.

"And the rest of us?" Stan asked, voice strained.

Allura sighed a little. "While it is up to the Lions themselves to make the final decision, I believe that the four of you have the necessary qualities." At that, the three boys that Eva was more familiar with all paled a bit (in Jordan's case, moreso) when they realized there wasn't any getting out of it.

"Jordan brought up a good point earlier," Shiro spoke up. "Both the green and yellow ones look like they're pretty far away."

"That's nothing to worry about. The castle's teludav is clearly still operational, given that you're all here to begin with."

Eva was going to assume that whatever a _teludav_ was (the translator just did not offer anything for that word), it had to do with the blue sphere-thing they'd flown through before.

"Alright then. Molly, you and Stan go for the Yellow Lion first. And when you get back—"

"Hold your gazurgas there Number One," Coran cut in. "The castle has shuttles you can make use of to go retrieve the Green Lion. It'd be better to get them all here sooner than later."

Shiro nodded after a moment. "Alright, in that case, Koji, you'll come with me then."

"Uh—okay," the technician mumbled, still looking anxious.

"What about the Blue Lion?"

"Y-Yeah, what about it?" Jordan piped up. "It's just—floating there in space."

Allura eyed the corresponding marker. "I can't seem to locate her right now. It's likely that the castle needs some repairs done." She chuckled humorlessly. "Everything in the castle is _long_ overdue for a maintenance check, after all."

"I'll get started on that after readying the pod," Coran said while fiddling with his mustache. "They didn't call me the _Coranic_ for nothing! …get it? Coranic, mechanic?" No response was given, aside from two extremely-flat looks from both Stan and Koji. "Ah, right then. This way, now." They set to follow the Altean down the hall, with Shiro pausing to tell Jordan to wait there.

It wasn't until Stan had almost walked into the corner of the wall at one of the turns that Eva noticed that both he and Koji still looked something _beyond_ tense. She mulled it over for a few seconds before saying "It's, um, not as hard as it looks. Flying those things, I mean."

Both of them started a little, with Koji quietly saying "Thanks Molly," with a small smile. "I'll try to remember that."

"And here we are!" Coran announced at another turn, a doorway opening to show a hangar featuring several identical monochromatic ships all lined up. There was an open space at the end of the row, though—and then Eva remembered something completely different.

"Wait, could we keep our star-racer in here?"

"Your—ah, I'm going to assume you mean your racing ship." Coran nodded. "I'll have to track down some cargo drones for that. First of all, how big is it and how heavy is it?"

"She's about the size of one of those," Stan replied after eyeing one of the shuttles. "Weight-wise, something close to ten tons."

"Ten— _oh_." Coran looked startled, and coughed a bit. "Right, that's—that's probably going to need the heavy-lifters, then."

* * *

It hadn't taken Shiro very long to figure out how the Altean ship worked—he'd said that it was actually a lot like some of the standard aircraft back on Earth. So the first piece of good news was that the ride was _almost_ guaranteed to be a smooth one.

The second was that Stan had reported that the damage to the _Arrow_ —at least in terms of what was sustained by being in the Red Lion's cargo hold—sounded worse than it really was. The paint on the sides of the reactors had been scraped off and the metal had been scratched, but those would be easy fixes compared to everything else.

What Koji was wondering about now was how the Altean ships worked. Particularly in terms of how the covering for the cockpit simply materialized in place.

There was also the detail of those strange blue spheres being confirmed by Allura as being legitimate _wormholes_. So far all Koji knew for sure about those was that the teludav thing she'd mentioned before had something to do with them.

His first impression of the planet on the other side of the wormhole (he's officially been on _three different planets other than Earth_ ) was the sheer _humidity_ ; it was enough to instantly fog up his glasses. The second was that it was very…well, _green_ , with the immediate environment being a rainforest.

A lot like the thing they were supposed to find here, actually. That was the _bad news_ half to the aforementioned good news—that he had to figure out how to pilot a giant metal cat was one thing, but Coran's parting statement to them had been another.

 _"We can only keep the wormholes open for about two vargas. The good news is that according to our reports, both planets are relatively peaceful. So if you do get stuck, they could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives!"_

No pressure or anything.

To the side, Shiro held up the tracking device the Altean had given to him before they'd left, turning back and forth a few times, before saying "This way."

Alwas had been okay enough. There had been days of triple-digit temperatures, yes, but the team's pit had air-conditioning. The air had also been relatively clear of any pollen and such, given the astounding lack of obvious vegetation.

This nameless planet was a whole different story. To go with being a veritable jungle, a few minutes' worth of walking had left Koji constantly feeling like he was about to sneeze, but nothing ever happened.

Not until he walked into Shiro, anyways. Koji hadn't realized that he'd stopped walking until then, though it probably had to do with the fact that they'd reached a river. "Is everything okay?"

"Huh? Well, yeah," Koji replied, voice unintentionally dropping into a mumble toward the end. Nope, that was _obviously_ a lie, and if the dubious quarter-smile Shiro had there was any indicator he'd figured as much too. "I mean—I'm not a pilot! The closest I ever got was programming the _Arrow_ 's flight controls, a-and we're trying to find some _ancient_ _robot cat_ that's been sitting out here for _who knows how long_!"

"Well, we know they still work, since Molly got the Red Lion running," Shiro pointed out. He paused, seeming to be mentally debating on something, before adding, "And to be honest? I was a nervous wreck a few hours before I first flew one of the Garrison ships."

Koji gave him a baffled look at the last part. "Really?"

Shiro nodded, looking mildly sheepish, then puzzled. Then he smiled again. "And there's something the commander on the Kerberos mission always said: if you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great."

That…was a little reassuring. And a valid point.

The rest of the walk was quiet for the most part, save for the rustling of the foliage to the side—the only things Koji had seen so far were these little yellow three-eyed four-armed rabbit-like aliens that kept their distance, but otherwise looked almost happy to see them. He had a nagging feeling it wasn't just them, though.

Then they reached where the river went through a cavern, which had some lighting in the fashion of carvings in the wall lighting up emerald. "Well, we're definitely going the right way," Shiro remarked. To go with the trail of lights, the tracking device Shiro had in hand was steadily beginning to beep faster, and all that was really doing for Koji was making him feel apprehensive all over again.

 _No,_ he thought, shaking his head a bit. _This'll work out. Besides, it didn't look…_ too _hard when Molly was flying the Red Lion…_

The Red Lion, which was coded in what Koji assumed was Altean, and was _far_ more complicated than the _Whizzing_ _Arrow II_ —the fact of every single visible key having no label as to what it did notwithstanding.

Something was strange about that.

At the end of the tunnel, the river turned, but continuing to follow it wasn't necessary, given how fast the tracker was beeping now. The sandy soil gave way to stone tiling, with the pathway being more clearly-marked by two identical stone statues facing each other halfway down it. They were both worn smooth by time and covered in moss, but they vaguely resembled what they were looking for.

The end of the path featured a large, crumbling ruin overgrown with large wood-like vines. If the Green Lion was anywhere around here, it was probably in there, and Koji swallowed reflexively at that observation. _I just have to…get up there first._

The steps were stable enough, if considerably steeper up close, and the vines were a little on the slippery end of the scale, so it took longer than he would've liked to reach the top. The view from there was pretty nice, at least.

Then something made him look down.

Through the vines, he could see a barrier much like the one that had been around the Red Lion, save for being ( _obviously_ ) green in color instead. It vanished almost as soon as he saw it, and the Green Lion's eyes lit up in bright gold. Clearly, it was still operational.

They probably had some sort of optical recognition system to know if something or some _one_ is in front of it, hence it turning on…although the Red Lion hadn't activated until Molly had touched the barrier around it.

Allura had implied that the Lions could limit their own controls, dependent on who was trying to pilot it.

From what Koji understood about computer AIs, discerning someone's entire personality on first direct contact was _impossible_ , simple as that.

Something was definitely strange about these ships.

 _Maybe I'll try looking at the Green Lion's coding later,_ he thought after finding his way to the cockpit. That idea didn't stop him from abruptly finding himself momentarily breathless when the display screens all came on as soon as he'd situated himself in the chair.

It really had seemed simple, in terms of Molly handling the Red Lion's controls. One thing the Lions shared in common with a star-racer was that there were two steering consoles, so just moving them forward a little _should_ get a response small enough for him to gauge how much movement was needed—

Needless to say, he wasn't exactly expecting both being moved forward not even an inch resulting in the Green Lion crashing through the vines like they were paper, coming to a heavy landing meters away from Shiro, who stumbled back in surprise.

 _Okay, so the controls are_ very _sensitive,_ he noted to himself, after taking a minute to get his nerves under control. Another strange thing: the Green Lion sounded almost like it was purring, even though the red one had been almost completely silent. Aside from the shock, there was also something like a detached sense of excitement, though it had faded into near-nonexistence almost as soon as he'd noticed it.

Koji shook his head a little. He could wonder about that later. Right now he just had to figure out how to get this thing _into the air_.

And, well, maybe asking Molly for some actual advice was on the table now.

* * *

At this point in time, Stan was one-hundred percent convinced that the Altean definition of "peaceful" was the opposite of the human definition, because they'd been jumped by a whole swarm of those gray ships as soon as they'd even gotten _close_ to the large asteroid.

He tightened his grip on the back of the seat when the Red Lion rolled to the side to avoid another laser barrage. Molly briefly glanced over her shoulder at him, asking "Are we near him yet?"

Stan checked the tracker. "We should be, but I don't see anything!"

"Maybe he's underground like Red was?"

"Maybe."

That'd make sense, actually, but it left one glaring problem, in that they were caught up in a one-sided fight. The Red Lion shuddered when a few blasts made contact, plunging toward the ground. Molly pulled back on the steering handles hard, and the Lion righted itself almost immediately, rocketing through a narrow canyon that opened up into a large quarry after a few seconds.

Stan was beginning to think that the Lions had gravity-generators under the floor of the cockpit, given that there had been a few instances of them being upside-down for a few seconds.

There also had to be some kind of inertial dampeners or something—he hadn't really noticed until now, but despite all the various sharp turns and rolls that were being performed, he wasn't being thrown around _nearly_ as hard as he probably should've been.

He still had to hold onto the back of the chair though, at least until the Lion switched to running on the ground instead of flying.

There was large machinery scattered around, with the most being grouped by a single opening on the other end of the clearing. If Stan had to guess, they'd figured out the Yellow Lion was here and were trying to look for it themselves.

Which meant they had a time constraint. _Great._

"I don't think Red's gonna fit in there," Stan noted, eyeing the rapidly-approaching cavern entrance.

"Well, maybe I could just—huh?" Molly muttered the last word, looking almost confused. Stan didn't get a chance to ask if anything was wrong, though, because the next thing he knew, he was falling, and then tumbling roughly on the rocky ground.

Stan stayed there on the ground for a few seconds, stunned, before a worryingly-close-sounding explosion convinced him to get up. The Red Lion was crouched close by, effectively acting as a barrier between him and the Galra ships—but that sure as hell didn't mean he was okay with what had just happened.

"Yeah, just _throw me_ into the middle of all of this," he muttered irritably to himself, running for the cavern. At first glance it looked like a dead-end, but a look at the floor showed it to be some kind of lift, with the control panel being off to the side. "Never mind that we were being _shot at_."

Nothing displayed on the screen made any sense, but the wiring in the panel itself looked similar enough to what Stan was familiar with; it was moving a minute later, with the Red Lion jumping back into the air, the swarm tailing it.

They'd gone from having an overbearing manager in a competition that _had been_ the craziest thing Stan had even considered going along with, to having some alien princess telling them to go fetch a giant metal lion from a hostile planet.

The whole lift shaft rattled when another explosion sounded somewhere back up by the entrance. "I never signed up for this shit," he hissed, glancing back out before glaring at the wirings.

He could hear that it had started, but it wasn't moving. Not to mention none of the buttons on the screen even reacted to being pressed—but if there was one thing he _assumed_ was universal, it was that things like these usually had a manual override somewhere.

There was just enough space in there for him to take a look at what was in the back of the panel, at least once he was shoulders-deep in the thing, though it took a bit of fumbling to find the switch-and-button combo that was the override.

The lift didn't go as far down as he'd been expecting, though that also meant it was still close enough to the surface for there to be some skylights in the ceiling of the cavern. Several tunnels branched off in different directions, looking too neat to be natural, with purple lights strung along the support beams.

Picking a few at random led Stan to the conclusion of everyone in here having gone out when they'd shown up—not that he was complaining about that. According to the tracker, the Yellow Lion was somewhere to the right.

Which would've been great, if there hadn't _not_ been any tunnels going that way.

He heard a muffled explosion, dust being shaken loose from the ceiling, and he glanced up for a few seconds. Was Molly okay up there? The Red Lion was obviously made from some kind of extremely-resilient materials, but nothing could hold out forever.

 _Maybe I'm missing something,_ he thought, looking around again. The lighting honestly wasn't the best, so there were weird shadows everywhere. One of those shadows moving suddenly almost made him jump, but it wasn't a Galra.

It looked kind of like a ferret, if a ferret could be the size of a large dog, though its ears were more like a rabbit's. It also had hooked claws that he could see pretty clearly. For a few seconds it just sniffed around the wall before noticing him there, staring for two seconds before bolting…into the wall.

At least, that was how it looked—there was actually a small opening by the ground, just big enough to crawl through, which led into another part of the cave. Which was completely dark.

Hopefully the flashlight he'd held onto didn't lose its charge.

Picking another tunnel at random led through a couple twists and sharp turns before opening up into a second sub-cave, distinguishable by a single stalagmite in the middle of it, and five more tunnels.

The second random choice led back to the first one, and rapid light footsteps signified that there were more of those ferret-rabbit things in here. In fact, those things were probably how this whole cavern system even existed. It had just been opened up more by the Galra in their apparent attempts to dig up the Yellow Lion.

But that didn't mean it was any less of a natural maze.

The second option went in one giant circle. The third one led out to a third area that only had two options—one being a dead-end, and the other leading into the second room. The fourth went back to the first room.

Stan actually felt one eye twitching a bit when he saw the crawlspace leading back to the mine half of the cavern, and stumbled when the ground shook again, harder this time.

It was a _pleasant_ reminder as to what kind of situation Molly was in right now—but then again, he'd already seen more than a few cases of her out-flying pro racers. _She'll be fine for a few more minutes._

But if he didn't find this thing within the next half-hour, he was heading back out.

The fifth option led to another new room, which had a new set of tunnels to go with it, the first of which went to another dead-end. He let out an exasperated groan before going to try the second tunnel over…which just went right back to the first room _again_.

At that point, Stan turned and punched the wall in frustration, _the action being regretted as soon as the decision to make it had come_ , before he backtracked to the fourth room.

None of them had any distinguishing marks between them, and for all he knew, there could be multiple other sub-caverns like this one that all went in circles.

He was seriously hoping Koji was having an easier time than they were. It was a good thing the Green Lion wasn't here, because Koji would _not_ do well in this kind of situation at all. It wasn't like Stan himself was doing any good right now though…and then he paused abruptly, attention catching on one of the pathways.

Specifically, the fifth one from the right, with a sudden clarity that wasn't unlike someone having pointed it out aloud.

As _weird_ as a hint it was, Stan wasn't about to ignore it. He almost missed the crevice in the wall that was just barely wide enough for him to slip through, and a glance at the tracker showed it to be going in the right direction. It was doubly proven when the walls of the hidden passage lit up yellow at various points.

There was a small slope and one right turn before stopping short. He'd had a basic idea on what the Yellow Lion looked like, but he wasn't expecting for it to be _quite a bit_ _bigger_ than the Red Lion.

The red one was smaller and streamlined, optimized for speed. _This one_ was built like a tank and meant to take hits, and would probably win in most metaphorical games of bumper-cars.

Stan shook his head a bit. He could think about how this one was put together later. First of all, he had to figure out how to _fly it_.

The barrier dropped as soon as he'd touched it, and the Lion letting him in quickly, moreso than how the Red Lion had first moved. The interior was pretty much identical to the Red Lion's, too, save for the difference in color when it came to the displays.

From watching Molly, he figured that the handles were the steering, and the pedals were…what, brakes? Thrusters? Both? He hadn't really been able to tell, and the thought of asking hadn't occurred to him then.

He huffed a bit, thinking _Whatever,_ before pulling the handles back. The action resulted in the Yellow Lion leaping up at the ceiling of the cavern, plowing right through the bedrock like it was nothing more than mud—and right into the path of something that exploded against its back, though the Lion barely budged.

A screen appeared on the center display; Molly appeared both a bit ruffled and more than a bit miffed, but she was otherwise okay, and Stan heard himself sigh. _"Took you long enough,"_ she said tetchily.

"Blame the maze," Stan replied, before scowling. "Did you _really_ have to throw me out like that?"

 _"That wasn't me!"_

"What, so it was the Lion?"

 _"Well—yeah."_ Molly was frowning at the Red Lion's dashboard now, adding _"I think,"_ in a puzzled whisper.

Something really did seem weird about all of this. Like how Coran had seemingly implied that the Lions went and picked their own places to hide all that time ago, and…and how a small background part of him (at the same time it didn't really seem like it was himself) seemed to just accept that the Red Lion had thrown him out like that, in a way that it _made sense_ that it happened.

Something was weird about that. Then again, Allura and Coran had also talked about the Lions like they were people and not machines.

Yeah, something was _definitely_ weird about that.

Molly looked up again, seeming to notice something, before saying _"And, um, your cut reopened."_

"Huh?" He placed two fingers next to his right eye, and the skin there stung at the contact; the fabric of his glove came away red. Stan hadn't noticed that the gauze had come off, probably during the tumble. "Oh. Well, that can wait until we're—" He was interrupted by something shooting by on the display screens.

 _"Oh great, they're back,"_ was the sarcastic comment given to that. _"We better get out of here!"_

* * *

Jordan was used to the ambiance on Alwas. The weird birds, the wind in the nearby trees, the distinct sound every star-racer within earshot of the team pit made, the gong from the Starting Area, the sounds of power tools being used—but right now all he could hear was a few consoles beeping quietly now and then.

Two "vargas" was the time limit for the others. The translator hadn't touched that word, which meant it didn't have a close-enough meaning to a human word.

So Jordan actually wasn't sure how long the others had before they were trapped wherever they'd gone to.

It wasn't too boring, though, what with the mice; he was assuming they'd been pets or something, given that Allura seemed completely fine with them being there.

He broke off from the staring contest he'd been in with one—specifically the one with periwinkle fur and blue eyes, which was named what _sounded_ like Chulatt—and turned to look at Allura before asking, "So uh…how do those wormhole things even work?"

He doubted he was going to understand the answer, but it was just _too quiet_ , and something was pinging away in the back of his head—something important, but he couldn't quite think of what it was.

Allura glanced sideways at him before replying, "The teludav generates an electromagnetic pulse that's directed to a specific point in space to open a wormhole. The destination is calculated at the same time."

Yep, none of it made sense. _Teludav_ still wasn't touched by the translator. "It sounds kinda complicated."

She smiled a bit. "I don't completely understand it myself. Coran knows more than I do. He'll have to teach you about all of the primary systems, in case something happens." Her voice faltered at the end, and now Jordan was starting to consider smacking himself.

As much like Nourasians that they looked and as much as that automatically made him wary of them, he had to remember that she and Coran _lost_ _their_ _entire planet_ ten-thousand years ago and only pretty much just found out and might be the last Alteans alive.

He might as well give them a chance. Or at least try to. "Stan and Koji would probably get it more than I would," he said after some thought.

"So they're the technical ones, then…what about you, Molly, and Shiro?"

"Molly's, well…" Molly was as stubborn as a mule once she got set on an idea. Kind of like Don Wei, actually.

Sometimes it seemed like she wasn't sure how to interact with them. Jordan had witnessed a few attempts at her trying to talk to Stan and/or Koji that had always ended with an awkward silence.

Whenever Jordan himself had talked about his family (did they even know where he was going?) she would get a faraway look in her eyes, which more often than not left him feeling worried.

Jordan wasn't sure how much she'd be okay with him sharing, so he instead asked, "When you were going on about the Lions and how they pick certain people—what about the Red Lion?"

Allura raised one eyebrow a bit before replying, "Like Coran said, he's the most temperamental of them, but he's also faster and more agile than the other four. The Red Lion needs a pilot that relies more on instinct than skill alone."

"That does sound a lot like Molly. She can be a little…explosive, sometimes. Though I—I guess she'd probably be able to understand how the, uh, wormholer works too."

He kept forgetting that she'd gone and modified the _Arrow II_ behind all of their backs on Alwas, so that she could use her rocket-seat in place of the standard seat.

"And Shiro, he was one of the best pilots in the Garrison, before Kerberos happened. That's when he and his team disappeared."

That had also been around the time when Commander Romain gave up on having someone teach Jordan how to pilot something, which brought to mind the thing (one of them, that is) he'd been meaning to say to Allura, and it was a good thing that he'd just found that it was actually easier to talk to her than he'd initially thought it would be.

Before he could say anything, there was a beeping sound from the display screen, and the shuttle that Coran had set up appeared through one of the wormholes.

It was followed by what was _definitely_ the Green Lion, which was set down in the courtyard where the Red Lion had previously been, and not even a minute after, it was followed by the other two from the other wormhole. The Yellow Lion was bigger than both of them.

The fact that their _mechanics_ were flying those things struck Jordan as _bizarre_ , because he clearly remembered when Don had tried convincing them to be the stand-in pilot for Rick, and…had he and Rick made it out of that mess okay?

Jordan hoped they did, and that they were safe on Alwas. Or maybe Earth, since they were _definitely_ out of the race, given that they'd brought the _Arrow_ with them.

The Red and Green Lions were roughly the same size, being almost identical save for the color difference and the green one having a shield on its back, but the yellow one was bigger than both of them.

If Jordan had to guess, the Blue Lion was the same size as the Yellow Lion. And boy if _that_ didn't unnerve him even more.

Jordan took a deep breath, making sure the thing he _had_ to say was firmly in mind, and metaphorically ripped off the bandage: "I can't be a pilot."

Allura turned to look at him directly now, not taking her hands off of the two pedestals, her relieved expression being replaced by confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I wasn't kidding when I said you don't want me in that thing!" Jordan exclaimed. "My first flight instructor _retired_ after trying to teach me, and he'd been in the Garrison for years!" Not to mention the thought of being in a pilot's seat just…freaked him out. A lot. And—

"The Blue Lion is all the better of a match for you, then." His train of thought was promptly derailed yet again. "She's the most free-spirited of them," Allura went on. "Like I said before, her pilot must be someone that isn't too controlling over her actions. She's more prone to acting on her own whims."

Jordan stared at her, processing the meaning of that, before deciding that destiny must be hellbent on punching him in the face today.

The door opening got Jordan to turn around in time to see the others all file back into the room. "Peaceful my _foot_ ," Molly spat irritably, looking around in what was probably a search for Coran.

"I'm going to assume you had some trouble," Allura guessed, a weary smile on her face.

" _Some_ ," was all Stan said, though the emphasis he put on the word had Jordan thinking it was more than a little. The gauze that had been on his face was gone, and that cut had clearly reopened at some point if the dark-red smudge on his face was any hint. There were dirt smears on his face and arms as well.

"Any luck with the Blue Lion?" Shiro asked.

"Not yet." Allura scowled a little at the holoscreen. "I've scanned all of the planets she likely would have been on, but she's not on any of them."

There was a brief silence before Koji said "I don't get it," in a tone somewhere between puzzled and disbelieving. "The—the Lions, I mean. The controls for them are obviously complicated, but it's like they're designed to be simple at the same time."

"He's got a point," Stan agreed. "And I can't understand a single word on any of those screens, either."

 _I think we knew those things defied logic already,_ Jordan thought, glancing between the others. Then his head backtracked to the thing Allura said that had stuck. "H-Hey, wait a second—you said the blue one was _more prone_ to flying itself. What do you even _mean_ by that? Are they alive or something?"

Allura was suspiciously quiet.

"Are they?" he repeated, looking at her.

"In a way, yes," she answered finally, seeming distant. "My father never understood how it happened to begin with, just that the Lions developed minds of their own at some point during their creation. Haven't you noticed?"

The room was completely silent for a few seconds, and then everything figuratively exploded.

"Wait, seriously?!" Molly exclaimed—Jordan was _really_ not surprised at how excited she looked about that. Shiro's eyebrows had almost vanished into his hairline, and Stan had this weird look on his face that gave the impression of being distracted by something.

Koji just stared at her for a few seconds, looking like he'd thought he'd misheard her, and Jordan could tell the exact moment the technician realized he _hadn't_ misheard that. He never got a chance to start ranting about it though, because then the door opened again and Coran bolted in, face pale and expression something akin to sheepish.

"Ah, princess?" he started, tugging on the collar of his suit a bit. "I may have made a _slight_ miscalculation when it came to the Galra battleship's ETA to Arus. It's orbiting the planet as we speak."

"They followed us?" Shiro's voice had an edge of alarm to it, matching the others' expressions. Allura's expression darkened, turning back to the holoscreens and bringing up a display of the battleship.

Then things happened almost too fast to process.

First, the Altean's shoulders tensed, and Jordan heard a quiet, dismayed "Oh," from her.

Then one of the big display screens at the maybe-front of the room flickered, and was replaced by a video feed, showing a purple-furred alien that looked considerably bigger than the other one they'd seen before, with another major difference being that one of their eyes was a red cybernetic.

 _"Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire,"_ he said briskly, in an all-business tone. _"I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the Lions. Turn them over to me, or I_ will _destroy your planet."_


	4. Innocence

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Innocence**

No one moved or said anything for what felt like hours after the screen had vanished, until Stan said "Well this can't get any worse."

"I'm afraid it can." Allura looked grim. "Sendak has the Blue Lion on his ship. That's why I couldn't find her."

"Oh, well that's just _great_ ," Jordan exclaimed sarcastically. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"Now, we come up with a plan." Shiro did a quick scan of everyone's expressions—it was borderline panic all around. "And we need one quickly."

"Well, they have the Blue Lion on that ship, so—maybe we can just sneak on and get her?" Molly suggested hopefully.

"That's a decent idea in theory, but realistically it'd be suicide," Koji replied flatly.

"We can't just _run_ , though!"

"Running might be safer," Stan argued.

"And they'd probably just follow us again!" Jordan retorted. "I say we take 'em on!"

"That's enough!" Shiro cut in sharply, before the situation could devolve even further, and turned to Allura. "Princess, you've dealt with the Galra before. What do you think we should do?"

"What we're _not_ going to do is abandon Arus," she said sternly. "Even if we did flee the planet, I wouldn't put it past one of Zarkon's commanders to destroy the planet either way."

There was no further protest from the other four, having paled at Allura's statement. Shiro had a nagging feeling that she wasn't wrong, too. "In that case, infiltrating the ship looks like the best way to go," he determined after a moment's thought.

"Well…how are we supposed to even get up there?" Koji asked. "It's all the way out in space."

"We have three Lions," Molly pointed out.

"Three sentient giant robotic cats against one alien warship that's both bigger and has more firepower," Stan summed up, sounding cynical. "I don't see how that's going to end well."

"It will if we play it right," Shiro asserted. "I'm guessing it was the Galra giving you two trouble with the Yellow Lion?"

"They didn't give us _that_ much trouble," Molly said. "I could've out-flown those guys with my eyes closed."

"Good, because you and Stan will be acting as decoys."

She sputtered a little at realizing what exactly he'd said. " _What_?! Why?"

"The Galra know about the Red and Yellow Lions already, but they _don't_ know we have the Green Lion," he explained. "Sendak will have to be kept distracted so the rest of us can get on."

That, and he wanted to actually _see_ how she handled piloting before even putting her _close_ to being physically in harm's way. The times prior to arriving to Arus showed that she definitely had the basics, but both situations had been far from ideal for an actual assessment.

"I…I guess that makes sense," she muttered irritably in response, crossing her arms and looking off to the side.

"Once we're on board, do whatever you can to take out that cannon." That was the secondary reason why Stan was also on the distraction half: breaking things went along with putting them together. "Does anyone have any questions?"

"Uh, yeah," Jordan spoke up. "How are we going to find the Lion? That ship's gigantic."

"I can set up a tracking device to lead you right to her," Coran piped up. Jordan still didn't look convinced, but he didn't protest any further.

"Okay, but that doesn't solve the problem of _how_ we'd even get on there," Koji reminded. "We don't have any equipment, either."

"Actually, we do," Allura said, eyes gleaming. "Follow me."

Down the hall and a few sets of stairways was an open room that seemed to be an armory of sorts, with a short hallway on one wall and five cases along another, each holding a uniform that were all nearly identical, save for their colored accents, ranging between black, red, blue, green, and yellow.

First and foremost, it looked more like some futuristic armor than a flight-suit, and felt like it too. Shiro wasn't sure what the white outer parts were made of. While light, it felt pretty solid.

And while he'd seen _a lot_ of alien tech over the past year—at least, what bits and pieces he could remember of that year—self-fitting armor was a new one. The red-accented one would _not_ have fit Molly otherwise.

Sentient ships were new, too. It sounded like it was right out of a sci-fi/fantasy book or movie, but now that Shiro was thinking about it, it would explain more than a few of the things that they'd experienced with the Lions, with the primary example being the Red Lion reacting to Molly specifically.

"I feel ridiculous," Stan muttered, pulling at one of the gauntlets a bit, before glancing back over his shoulder. "Koji, what're you doing?"

"The helmet won't go on right," was the response given, the words sounding clipped.

Coran seemed to realize what the issue was in seconds. "The visor will compensate for any ocular deficiencies you have. They can also act as binoculars if the situation calls for it!" Koji returned from the set of smaller rooms down the side corridor shortly after, looking more awkward about it all than anything else, with his glasses held in one hand.

Allura was standing by a horizontally-set container, which opened at her touch to reveal four semicircular objects. "The bayards were specially crafted for the Voltron Paladins. Each one takes a distinctive form, unique to its wielder."

Jordan peered dubiously at them, muttering "They sure don't look like much," before picking up the blue one. It flashed brightly moments later, changing form near-instantly into a standard handheld laser-cannon, albeit white with black and blue accents. His face lit up once the initial shock had passed, adjusting his grip on it; he clearly knew exactly how to handle a firearm. "I take it back—this thing's awesome!"

The green one took the form of a dagger, which Koji held more like it was a shard of glass. The yellow one seemed to be some sort of blaster, vaguely resembling a scattergun. Stan seemed more resigned about it all now, if also uneasy.

The red bayard became a recurve bow, complete with a fluorescent string. Molly regarded it with a distant look, until a snarky-sounding comment of "Oh, now where have I seen _that_ before?" from Jordan earned him a full-blown glare.

There didn't seem to be a black bayard, and Allura confirmed it: "Shiro, I'm afraid your bayard was lost with the former Black Paladin."

"I guess I'll have to make do," he replied, smiling a bit—he remembered enough from the self-defense classes in the Garrison, and he could _probably_ pull off one mean left hook now.

"Your bayards can be stored in your suits until you need them," the princess said once they'd arrived back on the bridge, which earned four bemused looks.

"Just think about putting them away," Coran added, twirling his mustache. Still seeming mystified, the other four paused, and startled when the bayards vanished in blinks of light.

Sensing that the conversation was about to veer _far_ off-track, if the expressions of the two mechanics were any indicator, Shiro intervened. "Alright, so we already went over the start of the plan. Stan, Molly, you both are going to act as a diversion—pretend to give yourselves up. The second things start looking hairy, get out of there." They both nodded in response.

"It looks like your best option for getting onto the ship would be through the engine room," Coran noted, pointing at a section on a hologram of the Galran battlecruiser he'd pulled up. "While they're a lot faster than what they used to be, it looks like they haven't changed the design much, if at all. The hull shouldn't be too thick there."

"Then that's our entry point," Shiro decided. "Let's get moving."

They'd made it back to the courtyard before Koji paused, hesitating before saying "You guys just—just be careful, okay?"

"I think we'll be okay," Stan replied, gesturing at the Yellow Lion before adding "That guy's practically a tank."

"They'd have to catch me first," was Molly's confident-sounding remark. "You guys just worry about _not_ getting caught."

* * *

It felt like everything was going by too fast to even _think_ about at this point, at least for Koji, what with all the new information that had just been dropped on them.

Like the Lions being _sentient_. It sounded absolutely ridiculous, but the faint, detached sense of amusement that was nipping at the back of his head clearly indicated otherwise. (And there was a little divot in the dashboard with a clip on it that was a perfect spot to put his glasses that DEFINITELY hadn't been there before.)

Ridiculous, but it somehow made sense at the same time. That he already had the basics on how to even steer the Green Lion down was one thing, but having a vague idea on what each button on the keypad did was another. It definitely explained the ease with which Molly had figured the Red Lion out.

Coran had continued to go over some of the various functions the outfits they had been given had over the comm, with one of them being put to use as soon as the Green Lion was in position on the underside of the Galra ship—the visor of the helmet automatically extended into a mask right before the Lion's mouth opened, coinciding with a sudden lack of artificial gravity.

Koji nearly panicked when there was suddenly _nothing_ around him, until he saw Shiro maneuver himself to the surface of the Galra ship's underside with the assistance of the jetpack, AKA the other thing Coran had been very clear about mentioning. It was honestly a miracle in itself that this uniform was so lightweight.

"Just jump," Shiro called up to them. "It's not as scary as it looks."

Jordan audibly swallowed before doing as such, the jetpack sputtering a bit. Koji waited a few seconds before tentatively doing the same, yelping a bit in surprise when he was propelled forward without much warning. The other two reacted just quickly enough to catch him before he smacked into the hull of the ship.

Psychically-activated functions were another thing to add to the list of _actually-possible_ things he'd encountered so far today. Then, all he could really do for a few moments was just stare at everything around them, because he was actually _in space and not in a ship of any kind_.

There were no alarms going off or anything, which was a good sign, but he hadn't realized just how _colossal_ the Galra ship was up close. It was easily twice the size of a standard skyscraper, if not larger than that.

 _"You guys in yet?"_ Stan asked over the comm.

"Not yet," Shiro replied. "Fly a little slower."

 _"Got it."_

Shiro was studying a schematic on the holoscreen provided by one of the gauntlets—they were miniature computers with holographic display screens, linked directly to the castle's computer systems, hence how they even had a schematic of the battlecruiser to begin with.

Maybe he and Stan could help Coran with some repairs after all of this. It'd give him a chance to look at how everything was coded, for one. Then again, that was if they all lived through this.

There was a near-physical sensation akin to someone nudging him lightly no sooner than that thought was through his head, accompanied by what sounded like purring.

Then he found his attention directed to the look both Shiro and Jordan were giving him, and it took a few seconds for it to click. Out of the three of them, he was the only one with a sharp object.

The bayard pretty much jumped into his hand as soon as he thought about it, the fluorescent green blade materializing moments later. In the dimmer lighting, Koji could see the edges of it crackling faintly with the threatening promise of an electrical shock. It was also _extremely_ sharp, as proven with how easily it cut through the metal.

Through the misshapen hole was indeed some kind of generator room, with large, violet arcing bolts of electricity to the left and a jagged cylindrical object to the right. _"How about now?"_ Stan asked again, sounding nervous.

"We're inside," Koji confirmed quickly, before asking "Why?"

There was a minute's pause before the answer came. _"Came close to the plan getting screwed up."_ Koji had a pretty good (not good) idea on what Stan meant by that.

The only way out of the generator room led into a hallway, lit by a purple light that was somehow both too dim and too bright at the same time. "Now what?" Jordan asked once they reached an intersection, glancing at the tracking device. "The most I'm getting from this thing is _go right_ , but...uh, Shiro?"

Shiro jumped a bit at hearing his name, having been staring almost blankly down the hall, before replying, "I've…I've been here before. After my team and I were taken by the Galra cruiser off of Kerberos."

"Wait, seriously?" Jordan had whirled around to stare at Shiro with wide eyes. Shiro nodded mutely in response, which got a question of "Then, you think the rest of your team might be here?"

"We don't have time," was the curt response.

Jordan sputtered a bit before exclaiming "So what, you're just gonna leave 'em here if they are?"

"There's too much of a risk for us to be caught if we get sidetracked. Our priority is to find the Blue Lion, and get back to Arus." Shiro's voice seemed to gain strength as he spoke, like he was trying to convince himself, too.

Jordan looked conflicted for a few moments, before saying, "Not to go against you or anything Shiro, but I _really_ don't want to leave anyone with these guys. I mean—with what happened on Alwas, I'm not sure I wanna know what they do to prisoners."

Koji caught himself side-eyeing Shiro's prosthetic at hearing that. Something wasn't adding up about _that_ , now that he had a reason to think about it; he had a nagging feeling that it wasn't an act of goodwill.

"B-Besides," Jordan stuttered a bit now. "If there're prisoners here, maybe they'd have some info we could use."

"Jordan's right about that," Koji agreed, managing to keep his voice level. Correction, he had a sinking feeling about their entire situation now.

Shiro looked between the two of them for a few seconds, and then sighed, conceding. "Alright, you have a point there. Jordan, you go find the Blue Lion. Koji, you're with me. I have an idea on where the prisoners might be."

Jordan tensed. "H-Hang on, I'm going by myself?"

"Just be aware of your surroundings, and run when you have to. Try to stay undetected for as long as possible, alright?"

"But I—"

The sound of a door hissing open cut the conversation short; they immediately bolted in the two directions the sound hadn't come from. When they reached a point where the hallway branched again, a small gray pyramidal robot hovered in front of them. It stopped, the small light acting as the lens in front of it blinking once.

Shiro was quick to launch a small plasma bolt at it via the wrist-mounted blaster, which caused it to fall to the floor with a shower of sparks. "That thing will have alerted the security system. We need to get moving."

Or Koji could just deactivate it before it rebooted and bring it back with them. It might be a good idea to familiarize himself with how these things worked, after all…and it took a few seconds for him to realize that the Lion had just suggested that somehow.

Maybe this thing would be useful, anyways. "Just a second," he muttered, crouching and opening the panel on the side of it. "Maybe I could…oh, wait."

If there was one thing he really hadn't been expecting to see here, it was a layout he _recognized_. One part of the machinery was obviously a transmitter, so that definitely had to go. If his theory was correct, all he needed to do was reset the controls, via the button on the core part of the drone. The lights of it blinked a few times once the panel was closed, before glowing teal instead of burgundy.

"What did you do to it?" Shiro asked, perplexed.

Koji moved his hand to adjust his glasses out of habit, only to flinch when he instead tapped the visor. "I recognized the general setup of it," he explained. "I honestly thought they would've made their security system a bit more complex." Shiro looked lost, still, so Koji clarified it with "Let's just say that they won't be hearing anything from this thing anymore."

"Nice thinking." There was one heavily-reinforced door at the end of the hall, and Shiro visibly suppressed a shiver when they got closer to it. The repurposed drone floated up to the panel beside the door, which flashed green before the door itself slid open.

Inside were half a dozen individuals, who all flinched away—save for one of them, gray-skinned with a singular antenna on top of his head, who gasped a bit in surprise. "Champion?" he asked, sounding incredulous.

A look of disquiet crossed Shiro's face, and it was one Koji has seen a few times already—he was trying to remember something, but couldn't. "What did you call me?" The alien ignored the question, or maybe didn't hear it; he whispered something too quietly for Koji to hear to the others instead.

The drone chirped from behind them, and then Shiro was back to attention, giving the suggestion/order of following them. Koji looked over the other occupants carefully, but none of them looked even remotely close to human.

Shiro shook his head, ordering for them all to follow him down the hall. It only made a _perfect_ amount of sense that things went wrong as they reached what was assumedly the escape-shuttles, in heavy footsteps coinciding with a mechanized voice saying _"Halt!"_

There were guards. Robot guards, but still guards— _of course_ there would be guards here—

A low buzzing sound that quickly rose in pitch snapped Koji out of his thoughts, and he looked sideways toward the source to see that Shiro's expression had gone eerily blank. At least, up until he lunged toward the guards, his prosthetic arm shining a bright violet not unlike the highlights the ship they were inside had.

Koji wasn't exactly sure what happened between then and several seconds later, but the next thing he knew, all four robots were in pieces strewn across the floor.

"I—uh—wow," he managed to get out finally, stumbling over toward Shiro. "Where did you learn how to do _that_?"

Shiro didn't reply immediately, looking blankly at the no-longer-glowing prosthetic/weapon. "No idea," he replied finally, frowning at it.

A sensation like something nipping the back of Koji's head accompanied the recollection of _the prisoners_ , but they both turned in time to see one of them waving from a then-launching shuttle. _They could've at least waited,_ Koji thought, bemused.

The nagging feeling came again, this time with some nervous urgency. _Oh wait._ "They know we're in here now," Koji blurted, looking at Shiro, who nodded a bit before taking off back down the hallway.

Koji stifled a groan. As if today hadn't already involved _enough_ running.

* * *

At that point in time, Jordan was seriously beginning to wish he'd had an actual map of the ship's interior. There was one large space that looked promising, and the tracking device was pointing him in that general direction, but the matter of _how to get there_ was the main issue. The map he had up on the gauntlet's holoscreen only did the outermost areas of it.

He'd already lost count of just how many times he'd run into a dead-end, or wound up going in a circle, _or_ had to duck around a corner to avoid being seen.

It was either just him, or most of the grunt work on this thing were done by robots—they looked just like the thing that had been in the ship Shiro had crashed on Alwas in, and the way they walked seemed a little too stiff.

Considering what they might just have to do to the battleship as a whole, that was probably a good thing.

Jordan stopped to take cover in another hall when he heard footsteps approaching, and kept going once the sound was gone, glancing at the tracker again. Straight ahead, now.

What he'd been trying to think of earlier had finally come around and hit him after they'd split up—they might've just gotten yanked into a war that had been going on for a _long_ time.

(Something was weird about that, given that they were just learning about it _now_.)

He walked by a larger doorway that had been left open, paused, and then backtracked to look in—and promptly gulped anxiously, mouth going dry all of a sudden.

Jordan had been spot-on in the assumption of the Blue Lion being the same size as the yellow one. At the same time, though, it seemed more streamlined in design.

But that didn't change that it was still the fourth giant robot lion-ship.

 _C'mon Jordan,_ he told himself as he walked toward the ship, attempting to take a deep breath. _You can do this. Just…go up to the giant robot lion that an alien princess thinks you can fly._

He was _not_ going to think on the fact that the _Arrow II_ would probably look like a toy next to the Blue Lion.

The forcefield gave everything in the hangar a blue sheen, though there wasn't really anything else in there to begin with, apart from some equipment that were probably how and why the Lion was seemingly suspended in the air, though it (she) was still close enough to the floor for him to be able to easily reach the edge of the forcefield around it (her).

"Uh—n-nice kitty," he mumbled, stepping back while trying to dismiss the sheer _awkwardness_ he was feeling in regards to the fact that he was talking to a giant metal lion. "I'm, uh, here to get you out of this place." Nothing happened. _Maybe it…she's asleep or something?_ The Lion's eyes were dimmed, so that could be it. "Are you awake?" he tried then. No response came, of course, and after a few seconds he mentally shrugged before knocking a fist against the barrier a few times.

Amazingly, it worked—the Lion's eyes lit up, and something not unlike a chill went down his back. Then a distinct idea of _back away_ starting pinging away in the back of Jordan's head, which he decided to listen to—with the amount of weirdness that had been dropped on them already, it was probably the better idea to just roll with it.

Seconds later, the barrier vanished, and the oversized ship dropped to the floor. _They probably heard that,_ part of him noted after barely managing to keep his balance, glancing over his shoulder before heading up the ramp that the Lion had let down.

The difference in coloration aside, it was identical to both the Red and Green Lions, and probably the yellow and black ones too. It took a bit of self-convincing to actually sit down in the chair, and cerulean holographic displays came up as soon as he'd put his hands on the steering handles.

What had Molly done with the Red Lion again? Or, heck, Koji with the Green Lion? Jordan briefly took the helmet off to wipe some sweat from his forehead, looking between everything from the monitors (not that it helped, because they were all in Altean) to the console to the handles and pedals.

The Blue Lion looked _insanely_ more complicated than the _Arrow_ , and all that thought did was send a jolt of panic through him, because if he couldn't fly a star-racer right, then how the hell was he supposed to fly _this thing_ without wrecking it?!

Not even a moment later, Jordan found himself letting out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding; a wave of calm had swept over him, and he blinked a few times before looking around warily. _Where did that—oh, wait._

Magic alien ship that was somehow alive…and could maybe read minds? As creepy as that idea was, that was probably a _fantastic_ first impression he'd just given. "Uh, thanks," he said, feeling awkward now. Jordan heard what sounded like a very big cat purring in response, accompanied by a distant feeling of appreciative happiness in the back of his head.

The impression that followed wasn't him either, also coming from the _very_ _foreign_ presence that was suddenly lurking in his head. It was vague, but the meaning was clear: the Blue Lion wanted to get _out_ of this place.

Jordan stared at the steering console again. Now that he was taking another look at it, the pedals looked like something a vehicle on Earth would have. So there was _one_ familiar thing, at least.

"Alright, now what?" he muttered, meant to be to himself, but as if in response a blurred image briefly overlaid his vision—both handles forward. The purring sound came again, rising and falling steadily in a calming way.

It was a thing. The living, psychic lion-shaped spaceship that thought he could be a pilot was _actually a thing_.

The alien princess was not kidding about _anything_ when it came to the Blue Lion…which meant he had to surrender a point of merit to her.

She was better than Beetle Boy, at least.

He regarded the hangar's doors. A few good laser shots should put a decent hole through them. Jordan threw one final wary glance at the handles, and took a deep breath before gripping them a little tighter.

If the Lion thought he could do it, too…then maybe this wouldn't be so hard. _Maybe_.

The sound of laser blasters and flickers of light on the display screens made him jolt, his head snapping to the side. A whole cluster of Galra-robots were in the hangar now, all shooting at the Blue Lion with handheld weapons. Jordan got a vague impression of amusement from the Lion's presence, as if their attempts were hilarious to her.

Clutching the handles nervously, he was about halfway to having his nerves together enough to move them, when an alarm started going off, coinciding with Jordan seeing the hangar doors slowly opening. Which was _weird_ , because he didn't remember touching anything that could cause them to open. (To be honest, he _probably_ should've thought about that himself beforehand.)

Though as weird as it was, he wasn't really one for looking a gift horse in the mouth.

For a second, he reached for his dogtags, before remembering that he couldn't exactly do that, what with them being under both the armor and its undersuit. He settled for taking another deep breath instead, and then pushed both handles forward.

* * *

"C'mon, any time now," Stan muttered to himself irritably, not quite glaring at the translucent purple bubble around the larger ship's cannon. He really should've expected that they would put some kind of security measure on the thing, given how much of a probable punch it dealt out. He already knew what the aforementioned punch looked like, too.

A streak of red in the background momentarily had him glance up—Molly was busy leading the many smaller ships on a chase through a nearby asteroid field, and had only needed one reminder to make sure they stayed away from the Yellow Lion.

And the underside of the battlecruiser, of course; it would be bad if Sendak found out that they had the Green Lion too.

Stan had only heard the guy talk once and already didn't like him. Then again, what he'd said wasn't necessarily endearing by any means.

The barrier decided then to splinter and disintegrate. _Finally,_ Stan thought, moving onto the next part: actually wrecking the cannon. The Yellow Lion himself seemed partial to just ramming the barrel—at least, Stan assumed that was why something kept dragging his attention to it.

At the same time, the base of the cannon probably held whatever powered it. Realization flickered over from Yellow at that thought, followed by agreement. Not even ten seconds later, the latter structure had a sizable crater in it, as did the barrel for the heck of it.

 _Alright, that's done,_ Stan thought, giving his handiwork a once-over before turning his attention to the ongoing chase. If they way some of the gray ships were splintering off and going around in different directions was any indication, Molly was sticking to a pattern in which way she was going, and they were starting to get wise to it.

The difference between this situation and the situation of not even two hours ago (how was it still the same day?!) was that they were _both_ in a giant metal cat-shaped ship. _Well,_ _Shiro_ did _say those things were robot-piloted._

That didn't mean that the act of the Yellow Lion slamming into one and making it break apart into shrapnel didn't make him shudder a little.

The Lion would _definitely_ win most games of bumper-cars. If not all of them.

 _"You broke the thing?"_ Molly asked, the Red Lion curving around an asteroid to stop by Yellow.

"They definitely won't be using it for a while," Stan replied, frowning a bit before asking "Did you hear anything from the others?"

Something green racing by interrupted her before she could reply. More specifically, the Green Lion had raced right by them, and was followed by what could only be the Blue Lion.

Which proceeded to fly right into an asteroid.

Though it bounced off undamaged, there was something of a mental wince from the Yellow Lion at witnessing it, before both he and the Red Lion flew after them.

 _"Jordan, are you okay?"_ Molly asked.

 _"Yeah,"_ Jordan replied, and a display appeared of the Blue Lion's cockpit; he had one hand to his head with one eye half-shut, probably out of reflex, and the other hand was on one of the Lion's handles. _"I think I'm just gonna let the Lion deal with the_ flying _part."_

"That's probably a good idea," Stan remarked, thinking back to Jordan's disastrous attempt at flying the _Arrow II_. "Hey, maybe you can practice flying out here in space. There's less things to crash into…well, except for what you just hit."

He counted to three before there was a sarcasm-laced _"Oh,_ very _funny,"_ from Jordan.

* * *

The re-entry to Arus's atmosphere was silent for the most part, at least until the castle came into view. _"Uh, what's with the bubble thing?"_ Jordan asked cautiously, the Blue Lion slowing marginally.

 _"Don't worry, it's just the castle's particle barrier,"_ Coran replied brightly. _"The Lions will pass through without issue."_

"Particle barrier," Koji repeated numbly, and Shiro took the time to look sideways at him. He didn't look as winded now—he'd been nearly falling over by the time they'd made it back to the Green Lion—but he still looked a bit pallid.

"You did a good job back there," he said, tensing involuntarily before the Lion passed through the barrier. It felt _weird_ , in a way that it was like a full-body static shock, but not in a painful way. Koji started a little in response to the statement, giving him a confused look, so Shiro elaborated. "I'm—assuming you've never been in a situation like that."

There was some hesitation before he answered. "Well…no, not really. But there was when we were getting ready to go to Alwas, though. All I know is that there was a Crog trying to keep us from leaving."

And _there_ was the ugly reminder that Earth already had unfriendly neighbors. He recalled Jordan bringing them up before, but it hadn't really stuck then. Last Shiro knew, things were still at _cold war_ level.

Hopefully, it stayed that way.

The Green Lion angled down into the castle's central spire at Allura's direction, coming to a landing between the Red and Yellow Lions. The Blue Lion was much slower to come down, boosters flaring erratically before finally dropping to the floor on the other side of the red one.

Shiro stepped out of the Green Lion, stopping just shy of the staircase that led up to a towering door. _"So now what?"_ Stan asked.

 _"I just put the command in,"_ Allura said, her voice tense. _"It should go through any tick now."_ As if prompted by her words, the cyan highlights of the Black Lion's hangar door seemed to shine brighter, in accordance with the eyes of the four Lions flashing gold.

(Why would the princess be tense about this?)

Slowly, the door began sliding upwards, and Shiro became aware of what could be described simply as a _presence_ —and the air the aforementioned presence had _definitely_ complemented its owner.

Like her name implied, the Black Lion was primarily a deep ebony in color, also sporting yellow accents along with a cyan V-shape on her chest, and had a very notable design deviation in that she had a pair of red wing-like protrusions on her back. Shiro heard Stan whistle over the comm, and a quiet _"Oh wow,"_ from Molly. Shiro didn't miss the envious note in her voice.

For a moment, Shiro felt as though the Black Lion was looking right through him. Then, with a sense of acceptance, the Lion roared, with the sound being taken up by the other four as well.

It also raised the detail of the helmets probably having some sort of audio-dampening tech built into them.

Shiro had barely taken five steps into the cockpit proper before he heard an alarm blaring throughout the hangar, followed by a hasty warning from Allura: _"Sendak's entering the Arusian atmosphere!"_

No sooner did she finish speaking did the screens all immediately light up in a shade of pale purple. Of course it was purple, because purple was the color _black light_ emitted, but the Lion didn't have the same feeling that the Galra ships had. Not by a _long shot_.

The Lions all rocketed up through the tower, the gateway at the top opening to let them out, all five coming to a heavy landing outside the castle—just in time to see an ominous glow from the battlecruiser culminate into a beam of solid light. The force of the impact caused the ground to shake violently for a few seconds, the castle's barrier being enveloped in flames for that same timeframe.

The reticle on Black's front screen zoomed in on the source of the light once the air had cleared, focusing on the _very-much-intact_ ion cannon.

 _"What the—how did they fix that thing so fast?!"_ Stan exclaimed.

 _"Well, the damage you did has it at half its firing power,"_ Coran said. _"The castle's shields still get weaker with every blast though, so we really do need Voltron right about now!"_

That _sounded_ like a plan, but there was one glaring problem.

Apart from the fleeting vision the Red Lion had shown them all, Shiro had no idea what Voltron even _was_. At first he had been thinking it was just all five Lions together as a team, but Allura and Coran were implying that it was something… _more_.

There was another blast from the cannon, and the castle's barrier was blinking opaque red in multiple places now. _"Hey, um, Shiro?"_ Molly started nervously. _"What—what should we do now?"_

"We take down that battleship," Shiro replied, and Jordan nodded slightly in response Maybe the cadet had figured it out beforehand.

 _"Take it down?"_ For a second, Koji looked _almost_ something bordering exasperation, before being near-instantly replaced with muted comprehension. _"Wait, but—we're not—?"_

"I understand that none of you expected to get dragged into something like this," Shiro started carefully. "But sometimes life throws you curveballs and you just have to deal with them. We'll all be done for if they get these Lions.

"Ignore the fighters unless it's absolutely necessary. Jordan, let the Blue Lion take care of the flight controls, and you handle the weapons—see if you and Molly can disable the engines."

 _"Uh—okay but—where_ are _the engines?"_ the latter asked uncertainly.

"Somewhere around the back of it," he replied, before continuing. "Stan, Koji, you're both with me. We need to knock that cannon out for good this time." Stan hadn't said anything, and was doing a great job at keeping a straight face through all of this.

The Lions all charged out into the fray—only to be set upon by what had to be at least _half_ of the Galran fighters that were in the air. Shiro reacted immediately, with Black firing straight ahead and subsequently destroying three of the ships. The other four had all scattered, though in the same general direction toward Sendak's ship.

 _"Oh of_ course _that thing's back,"_ Stan grumbled irritably when a particle-barrier flickered around the ion-cannon. _"Just—things just_ can't _be easy for us, can they?"_

"Things rarely are," Shiro remarked wryly, pausing in assisting trying to break through the shielding to wipe out some more fighters.

 _"Um, Shiro? I'm—I'm not sure how we're supposed to do this,"_ Molly said uncertainly. _"I don't even think it's_ working _!"_

"Just keep the Red Lion's fire on it, Molly," he reassured. It took an absolutely-stupid amount of effort to keep his voice even—Molly couldn't have been any older than Matt's little sister, and Shiro had pretty much just dragged her into a war. Karma was going to get back at him for that _for sure_.

Then things got worse, in the fashion of a sound not unlike a giant bug-zapper being heard, before Allura warned, _"Our shields are down. I'm redirecting all remaining power to the weapons system, but you_ must _form Voltron!"_

There was a two-voiced shriek of _"HOW?!"_ in response; the Green Lion was flying around in a haphazard manner, narrowly avoiding a small swarm of fighters, with her pilot having sounded dangerously close to hysterics now; Shiro also now had a suspicion on why exactly Jordan never learned how to pilot while with the Garrison, if how he was randomly hitting buttons on the front console was anything to go on.

A smaller laser fired at the Black Lion from the battlecruiser, and Shiro had to swerve to avoid it, nearly crashing into the Yellow Lion in the process. _"Okay, I don't know about you but I don't think this is going too well,"_ Stan said through grit teeth.

A few things happened at the same time after that, the first being the ion-cannon starting to light up again. The second was that the barrier around the cannon finally gave way.

The third was an idea hitting Shiro, even if it wasn't the best one. If he'd said something, he didn't remember what exactly it was, just that all five Lions rammed the barrel: Black, Red, and Green from the left side, Yellow and Blue from the right.

Now the barrel looked vaguely like a crumpled straw, rather than a cannon. A large, hollow, metal straw that was filling with active plasma that now had nowhere to go.

"Everyone, scatter!" Shiro ordered, admittedly unnecessarily, because the others had already veered away.

The cannon fired, and rebounded _spectacularly_ : the trapped plasma tore through the ship, sending it crashing to the ground as a flaming wreck. The remaining fighters promptly went dark before also plummeting.

Shiro sighed heavily, before giving the others a once-over. For two people who looked so different at first glance, Stan and Koji did a very good job at matching each other's expressions. _"Did…did that just happen?"_ the latter asked faintly.

 _"I think so,"_ was Stan's uncertain response.

"It did," Shiro affirmed. "We did it." _Halfway, at least._ Jordan visibly sagged in the Blue Lion's cockpit at hearing that, though he still kept a white-knuckled grip on the control sticks.

Molly was staring off to the side over the monitor, which Shiro deduced to be at the flaming heap of metal when he'd looked at how the Red Lion was positioned. It was all too easy to tell that she was pale-faced, even with her Lion's lighting, though she snapped out of it before Shiro had a chance to say anything, asking _"Is there anywhere for us to park these guys?"_ in a tight voice.

 _"Each Lion has their own hangar,"_ Coran supplied. _"the Red Lion's is the first one to the right, with the Blue Lion's being behind it. The Green and Yellow Lions are in the same order to the left."_

Shiro already knew where the Black Lion's hangar was, of course. The Lion herself had seemed vaguely concerned about Molly earlier as well, and now seemed almost like she was trying to ask something.

"I know about as much as you do right now," Shiro replied, glancing at the Red Lion's tower before Black had dove into her own.

* * *

Eva was pretty sure she'd gone in circles a few times, before the Red Lion had finally given her directions on which turns to take.

It was weird. Definitely, undoubtedly _weird_ , because the Lion didn't exactly use words. It was more like a series of impressions and feelings that added up to a clear-enough idea—which in this scenario, was a sense of whether or not to go left or right.

She hadn't been the only one to need the directions, at least; she'd almost walked into Stan on the way up to the bridge, and they'd met up with the other three at the last turn. Allura turned to look at them when they stepped into the room, saying "Good work, paladins." She sounded relieved, but there was a barely-noticeable stiltedness to the words.

Eva had heard it (or something close enough to it) so much in the past week that it was impossible for her to _not_ miss it, but at this point she just didn't care.

Now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off, she was realizing just how much had happened today. Jordan muttered something under his breath, at the same time as Stan wearily asking "There's a place for us to clean up and crash, right?"

"Ah, yes!" Coran held one finger up as he spoke. "I'll show you to your rooms—right this way!" A few twists and turns preceded a flight of stairs that went up in a spiral, which led out to a short dead-end hallway with five rooms, two on the left and two on the right, and one at the end. "These rooms haven't actually been used by anyone before, so there's not much too them aside from essentials at the moment," he went on. "I took some time to stock the closets a little as well. I'm not sure what any of your preferences are, so there's a little bit of everything!"

Mostly-empty or not, it was still a giant step up from the glorified broom closet of a room Eva had back on Alwas, with this room being a _lot_ more spacious. It was also a departure from the color scheme the rest of the place followed, with the walls and ceiling being a shade of red a bit paler than the Lion of the same color, whereas the carpet was a dark-red that bordered black.

Eva found that the aforementioned carpet was also as soft as it looked, after she'd figured out how to get the suit's boots off; putting it on had been one thing, but taking it off was another. She left the white parts in a haphazard pile by the bed before looking around at the room a little more.

Aside from the bed, there was also a floor-length mirror on one wall, by what she _assumed_ was the closet, given that the door was open and she could see some clothes hanging up in there. The door on the opposite side opened up to a bathroom, a shower included. She thought it over for about five seconds before deciding that it was worth trying to figure out.

In grabbing the nearest clothes that looked like they'd at least vaguely match, something else in the closet caught Eva's attention. Namely, a pair of fuzzy-looking slippers that had an uncanny resemblance to the Red Lion. The good news was that they fit.

The shower's controls were on the weird end of the scale, in that there was an on-off switch and two separate dials for temperature and water-pressure, but ultimately simple. The control pad to the side was left untouched, at least for now.

Eva wasn't really sure how long she spent just appreciating the hot water, but the fact that she hadn't eaten anything at all that day eventually convinced her to turn it off, get dressed, deposit both her team uniform from Alwas and the undersuit to the flight-uniform in the laundry chute that was set into the wall, and find her way back to the bridge.

At least, that's what her intent had been—she hadn't expected to nearly walk into Jordan when she stepped into the hall, who was wearing a two-toned blue shirt with matching pants, looking slightly damp. "Thought you got lost again," he said, frowning slightly.

"Wha'—I didn't get lost!" she retorted hotly, though she faltered when she _felt_ something that could maybe be described an a psychic eye-roll.

"Hey, all the halls in here look the same to me too," Jordan said, holding his hands up a bit. "Shiro asked me to find you, and Coran's getting food for everyone."

"What kind of food?"

"I have no idea."

Well, there was practically no chance of it being cup-ramen, and that automatically made it sound appealing to her. As they were nearing the dining hall the others were waiting in, Eva noticed something else. "You have 'em too?"

"Huh?" Jordan glanced down, face flushing a bit. "Oh, these? I, uh, found 'em in the closet. They're—really comfy. And the—the floor's cold."

"Sure," was her dry-toned response. Maybe all five of them had matching Lion slippers. It'd be kind of neat if they did.

The others were there already, and Eva picked the nearest empty chair. Then she did a double-take. "Um—where did…?"

"Long story," Koji muttered, glancing back at the small pyramid-shaped robot hovering a ways behind him, which chirped at the movement. Eva looked past him at Jordan, who just shrugged a little.

Then she noticed the smell. It was definitely _floral_ , though Eva couldn't put a name to it. And it was definitely coming off of the technician.

"You, um, smell nice," she commented, mouth quirking into an awkward half-smile, though all the comment did was earn a withering sort of pouty glare.

 _How, though?_ Aside from the shower, there had been a sink-stand and a mirror above it, but no cabinets or anything. Nor had there been anything that looked like soap anywhere, for that matter.

Her confusion must have shown, because she saw a faint pinkish flush cross Koji's face while he muttered something about buttons. Then Eva remembered the _keypad_ , and had to bite her cheek to keep from smiling. Given that the embarrassed blush became more noticeable, that probably hadn't worked very well either.

Stan just reached over to pat Koji's shoulder a bit, while Shiro was watching them with a confused sort of amusement. Allura, who was sitting at the head of the table, didn't seem to notice any of it, with how her attention was fixed on a holographic screen.

Coran swept into the room shortly after, _somehow_ managing to balance seven plates all at once, and he slid them all down the table smoothly. As for what it was…

"What even _is_ this stuff?" Stan asked after a few moments, eyeing it warily.

"Synthetic emergency rations," was Coran's response. "Typically reserved for longer trips where perishables wouldn't be a wise decision, but, _weeeelll_ …" He smiled sheepishly. "Even the preserved perishables couldn't hold up for ten-thousand decaphoebs. I'll have to make some time to make a run to the nearest supply station that'd be friendly to us."

"So they're MRE's," Jordan summed up, before giving a sarcastic "Great."

The "rations" looked something like lime pudding, or maybe jello, or something in between. And Shiro was eating it like it was just one of those things and not space-goo. "What?" he queried at seeing their looks. "It's edible."

Eva gave the stuff one last dubious look before giving it a small try. In terms of consistency, it was definitely _in between_ , but flavor-wise?

She now had some concerns for how much Shiro could actually taste.

"Where is Arus, anyways?" Koji asked after a few minutes, looking at Allura, who had just finished hers. "I mean—where in the galaxy is it?"

"Arus is a fringe planet," she replied. "Though I suppose you're wondering where we are in regards to your homeworld." A few nods were given in response, and she pursed her lips. "While we may have your planet's coordinates, it would probably be under a different name. You'll have to help me find it."

So commenced another walk up two flights of stairs, which brought Eva's attention to the detail of the adrenaline from earlier being completely gone now.

Which was to say, she was starting to feel like she would fall over at any second by the time they'd reached the bridge again.

Jordan was squinting at everything on the starmap this time, and Koji pointed out Alwas, near the center of what was currently displayed. At least, it might have been Alwas. It could also be the two other equidistant planets that Eva's dad had been talking about that last night on Earth.

Eva couldn't read Altean, but she has a good guess on what the symbols by the one planet in the center of the display meant—Ōban. (Where they'd never get to.)

Shiro stepped toward the back of the room and points at one of the multiple clusters of dots. "Can you zoom in on this one?" The images blurred once, twice at Shiro's insistence, and then Eva saw a more-familiar set of dots: their own solar-system. "Right there," he said, pointing at a specific one. "That's Earth."

"That one?" Coran eyed it before going over to the console. "Well, we didn't even have a proper name for it in the system here until now." For a moment, he'd gone wide-eyed, but it had vanished quick enough to have Eva wondering if she'd just imagined it.

"Where's Arus on this?" Stan asked. In response, the orange-haired Altean zoomed out, and the specks all receded into a spiral shape. Eva promptly felt like the floor had dropped out from under her feet.

"Earth is there," Coran was saying. Then he started scrolling. "And Arus is _aaaaaaaaaaaaaall the waaaaaaaaaaaay ooooveeeeeeeer_ …here!" The map zoomed in on another vaguely-spiral shape, and he pointed to a highlighted dot toward the edge.

"Wha'…?" Jordan muttered, a look of muted fear crossing his face. "But how—why are…h-how are we…" His voice steadily got quieter, shaking his head slowly as he spoke.

"Well now, that's quite a long way away!" Coran commented, sounding impressed. "That wormhole jump must've been a bumpy ride, given the distance between…" He trailed off when he turned around, seeing their expressions. "Is something wrong?"

"Not— _wrong_ , really," Shiro replied, voice distant even though he was standing only a few feet away. He had the look of a sudden realization on his face: he knew about this already and probably only just remembered. "It's just…our species just started getting out of its own solar-system fifty-three years ago. I don't think anyone's considered there being life outside our galaxy yet."

"But surely you would've had at least some indirect contact with at least one other system," Allura exclaimed doubtfully, before her face fell. "Unless…the Aenidesian Blockade, _of course_ …"

"The what?" Koji looked faint, ready to faint, or maybe both. To the side, Stan had muttered something too quietly for Eva to hear, looking slightly ill.

"It was a law enacted up by the natives of the Aenides complex to protect Ōban, after the war with the Galra began," Coran explained. "They all have the firepower to enforce it, and they're rather fond of the idea of _not_ interfering with the development of other races. Granted, given what's happened, I don't think the blockade itself is holding up that well…"

Eva didn't hear the rest. The distance between Earth and Alwas had been some twenty-five million light-years. On the night they'd left Earth, she'd thought _that_ distance had been huge, but the distance between Earth and Arus?

It had taken nearly fifteen seconds for Coran to scroll to where Arus was on the map in relation to Earth.

They weren't even in the same _galaxy_.

* * *

(endnote)

It's implied in OSR that the Earth, while aware of alien life in the Milky Way, doesn't know about other galaxies yet. I am taking full advantage of that implication.


	5. Paladin Training 101

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Paladin Training 101**

It was at the eighth time he found himself staring up at the moss-green ceiling that Koji had to stifle an irritated groan; that was probably as much sleep as he was going to get for that night. Then again, he wasn't typically asleep at that time to begin with.

At least, that's what it _felt_ like, since he wasn't sure how Arus-time matched up to Alwas-time. Or even Earth-time, for that matter. The symbols on the clock weren't anything Koji could make sense of either, so he didn't even know if it was still nighttime or not.

It was morning—and that thought/confirmation was so out-of-nowhere that the technician physically jumped a bit, garnering a chorus of chirps from the purloined security drone that was floating in the room's corner that sounded almost questioning.

The fact that the same apparent-source of the confirmation was now vaguely conveying _amusement_ cemented what it was. Koji wasn't even _near_ the Green Lion, so how was it ( _she_ ) still communicating with him like that? After thinking it over while getting dressed, he mentally shrugged and decided to ask—and got a mental shrug in response. Or at least what _felt_ like one?

"Okay, then…what are you?" he asked aloud.

At that, the Green Lion seemed to hesitate, like she was mulling it over, but when she finally did answer, it was in a nonsensical jumble of concepts and vague impressions that only succeeded in making Koji feel momentarily nauseous.

The Lion pulled back at noticing that, apologetic—whatever the answer was, it wasn't something that translated into anything a human mind could understand. _Figures it's something right out of a fantasy book,_ Koji thought, wincing.

Whether or not it came from not getting enough sleep, or from trying to make sense of what the Lion was trying to convey, he now felt like he'd been hit in the head by a wrench.

So it only made a _perfect_ amount of sense that an alarm started going off then, eliciting three startled screams from the adjacent rooms.

Stan was already in the hallway, looking like he'd gotten about as much sleep that Koji had. Molly and Jordan were both out there as well not even a minute later, both clearly having just thrown whatever clothes were grabbed first on. "What the heck's going on?" the latter asked, wide-eyed.

"I don't know!" Koji replied, feeling more than a little panicked now, before they all started toward the bridge at a run. Unexpectedly, Shiro was there already, as were the Alteans, one of whom looked distinctively annoyed upon seeing the rest of them filing into the room.

"I'm guessing this isn't an actual attack," Shiro was saying.

"And it's a good thing it wasn't," was Allura's icy-toned response as the alarm cut off. "Because it took you—Coran?"

"Seventy-five degrees!"

There was complete silence for about three seconds before a flat "Huh?" from Molly broke it. To the side, both Jordan and Stan had expressions of confused exasperation. The upside was that Allura looked about as baffled as Koji himself was feeling.

Coran himself seemed to notice something, glancing at the handheld device again, before looking appropriately sheepish. "Oh wait, sorry, this is a meat thermometer."

There was a short, irritated sigh before the princess went on from where she left off: "However long it took, it was _too long_. Coran and I have been up for vargas now, working on repairs to the castle, and we had to test the alarm systems. We decided to test _you_ while we were at it." The scowl deepened. "Guess which one failed."

"We were _sleeping_!" Molly countered irritably. "A little warning would've been nice!"

"You think Zarkon is going to give us a warning when he launches another attack? Only Shiro is in uniform—the rest of you don't even have your bayards!

"Judging by the amount of distress beacons the castle has picked up over the last ten-thousand years, it's safe to assume that Zarkon is in control of most of the known universe," Allura went on. "It's _very_ _likely_ that the only reason your galaxy is still relatively safe from the Galra is because of the Avatar's presence there!"

"Sure as hell didn't stop them from wrecking everything on Alwas," Stan said, tone sour, crossing his arms. "Isn't preventing that kind of stuff his job?"

"Not necessarily," Coran said. "From what we know, the Avatar is more of a neutral presence than anything else, and—"

" _And_ you five should be getting started on your training," Allura interrupted, eyes narrow.

Today was going to be one of _those_ days, apparently. And that was the other thing that had been bothering Koji since yesterday. No one had said anything outright yet, but what Shiro had said before they'd dealt with Sendak's ship had an implication he didn't like at all.

"Wha'—we _just woke up_!" Jordan shouted irately.

"Consider it practice for when we're under attack in the middle of a sleep-cycle, then. Now get to your Lions!"

Jordan grumbled something under his breath, though he went quiet when Shiro gave him a sharp look. "We'll start with some basic flying drills, and then come back in for breakfast in about thirty minutes," the space-pilot said. "Sound fair?"

There was some muttered assent after a short pause, and they turned to start down the hall, but a light flicker of something that wasn't exactly a physical sensation coming from Green's presence stopped Koji mid-step, and he turned to look at the narrow doorways set throughout the room.

At the same time, Coran said "You could make use of the lifts here on the bridge, unless you'd prefer to get suited up first."

He really didn't feel like walking all the way to the Green Lion's hangar right now anyways. There was some hesitation before the others—barring Shiro who once again had the unique one, and including Koji himself—each went to a specific door.

Koji paused to look back at the drone, which was _still_ following him, and made a point of telling it to stay put. Which it did, thankfully. Part of him offhandedly wondered if he'd be able to program a better AI for it.

The lift went down quickly, taking roughly ten seconds to reach the bottom of the shaft, and then it just stopped. The passageway was highlighted green, not bright enough to be overly painful, but still enough to make his eyes sting a bit, and there didn't seem to be any second platform or anything on the floor. Then he noticed the handle set into a rail on the ceiling. It was a zip-line.

A _zip-line_.

It took a few attempts for him get a hold onto the pulley, which started moving immediately. While Koji had better reflexes than most people tended to expect, he was exactly as strong as most people assumed, on top of him still being sore from yesterday.

In other words, it wasn't long until he lost his grip on the handle and ended up tumbling down the remainder of the slope head-over-heels. He stayed on the floor for a few seconds, stunned, before picking himself up and walking the short distance to…what seemed to be _at least_ a twelve-foot drop.

At this rate, he'd be lucky if the headache went away by itself.

* * *

 _"Should someone go in to check on him?"_ Jordan asked.

"Give him another minute or two," Stan replied. He had an idea on why Koji was taking so long—Stan himself was just wondering who thought a zip-line was a good shortcut, even though it technically _was_ a quick one, and was admittedly kind of fun.

As it turned out, it didn't take another minute, as the Green Lion emerged from its tower moments later. "Lemme guess, the zip-line?"

 _"Who even_ designed _that system?"_ was the frustrated-sounding response.

Shiro sighed near-inaudibly over the comm. _"All right—Molly, I know you were the_ Arrow _'s pilot for part of the competition on Alwas, but have you taken any lessons before that?"_

 _"No,"_ was her initial response, and her face faltered over the monitor screen before she added, " _I mean, Rick taught me a few things, but that was during the race."_

That was one of the things that had made it hard to sleep. Yeah, Stan _did not care for_ how Don tended to treat them (Molly and Jordan specifically, though Molly in particular had often been at odds with him) on Alwas, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel worried for both him and Rick.

Stan jolted when there was the mental equivalent of a hard poke from the Yellow Lion, and he barely managed to catch the end of what Shiro was saying. He looked at the Lion's steering handles for a few seconds before replying with, "Well, I _did_ test-fly the _Arrow I_ , but it was only in a straight line for a few meters."

 _"Okay—Jordan?"_ The silence that followed Shiro's abridged question was an awkward one. _"Right…well, let's start with flying in formation."_

 _"Which one?"_ Jordan asked resignedly.

It wasn't Shiro that replied. Rather, it was the Lions themselves providing an answer by lining themselves up on the stone bridge where they'd been waiting—Yellow was on one end, with the others to the right in the order of Green, Black, Red, and Blue. _"This one, I guess,"_ Shiro said after a bit, with a shrug in his voice. _"Jordan, just hold the controls steady. Alright?"_

 _"Got it."_ He sounded nervous, and honestly, Stan was feeling nervous too; Yellow sent over a feeling that could be described as chiding.

Now that it was more of a casual situation, Stan was able to better assess the _currently-impossible-to-ignore_ feeling that was the secondary presence in his head. Yellow was…warm, in a sense that was like a direct ray of sunlight, or sand that had been out in the sun all day, but not overly so.

It was also pushing the idea of trusting his teammates. _Well, I'm on the opposite side anyways._

So commenced a time of just flying in a straight line with occasional curves to turn—and to Stan's surprise, it wasn't _nearly_ as terrible as Jordan's attempt at flying the _Arrow_ had been. The Blue Lion only wobbled now and then, although the detail of the Lions being thought-driven to a degree probably had something to do with it.

Either way, he also saw that Molly was giving the Blue Lion plenty of room.

A flash of light to one side broke him out of his thoughts, and he saw that the castle's particle-barrier (which was another thing he wanted to take a look at eventually) was active.

 _"Wait, why's the barrier up?"_ Molly asked uncertainly.

 _"I have to run a diagnostic tests on the castle's defenses,"_ Allura replied; a monitor appeared, showing her facing an arc of holoscreens to the side on the bridge.

Several seconds later, the ground in front of the Yellow Lion was blasted apart by a cyan-hued laser, which Stan just barely managed to get out of the way of it in time. "Allura, what are you doing?!"

 _"Running a diagnostic."_ Her tone was unnervingly cheery. _"And I'm inspiring you in the meantime!"_

 _"Inspiring us for_ what _?!"_ Jordan shouted, panicked. Ahead, the Blue Lion swerved to one side, just barely avoiding the Black Lion, if only because Shiro had her jump out of the way.

 _"Your predecessors first formed Voltron in the heat of battle, which you five are going to have to learn how to do if we're to have any hope of freeing other planets from Zarkon's control. This should help!"_

Over the screen, Stan saw Allura tap a key on one of the holoscreens, and the computer then intoned _"Auto lock-on engaged."_ And then she walked away.

Was she trying to kill them?

* * *

After what felt like a few hours had gone by, Stan was really starting to think _yes_. At that point there were several different alarms blaring in the Yellow Lion, and multiple monitors were blinking red.

Which meant now the Lions were going to need to get some repairs, too—which was just _wonderful_ , because he had no idea on how he'd even _start_ on that.

He pulled back on the handles, and Yellow pivoted in place, but not fast enough for him to avoid getting clipped; he was promptly sent careening into the Red Lion, sending the smaller craft tumbling to the side.

 _"Stan, watch where you're going!"_ Molly snapped.

It took every bit of remaining willpower Stan had to not snap back at her, seeing as he was equally stressed-out at this point. Just when he was starting to think that would be a losing battle, the lasers stopped, and the castle's barrier flickered before vanishing.

 _"What just happened?"_ Jordan asked.

 _"I don't know, but I'm not waiting for it to come back!"_ Molly replied, with the Red Lion turning sharply toward the castle. The rest of them followed quickly.

No sooner was the Yellow Lion back in his designated hangar did Stan notice that the blinking monitors had actually _stopped_ blinking, having returned to their usual gold hue. He looked over the monitors—not that it really helped, because he couldn't read any of the information on them, but the displays alone were giving an impression that was a baffling prospect to consider.

"It's almost like you're fixing yourself," he mused aloud. The Lion then pulled off an air of being amused. _No way._ " _Are_ you fixing yourself?"

The amusement turned into a smug feeling, and that had him sitting down again and staying there for a minute. Sentient, telepathic, thought-piloted, and _self-repairing_. What next, being able to materialize things out of nowhere?

…that the smug feeling just got more noticeable had an implication that Stan decided could be thought about later.

He found Molly, Jordan, and Koji in the same room that Coran had them wait in yesterday after they'd first met. Sitting on a center table were a few plates of that synthetic stuff they'd had for dinner the night before.

The others glanced up at noticing him, but aside from that, it was quiet for a short time, save for the lime-colored substance gradually vanishing. At least, until Jordan said, "Well that was horrible."

"Understatement," Molly agreed in a low tone.

Koji nodded. "At least we don't have to worry about fixing the Lions," he muttered, and Jordan fervently nodded in agreement.

"You saw that too?" Stan asked—he thought he'd seen the eyes of both the Green and Blue Lions flickering, and he _knew_ he'd seen both of them take a few hits earlier.

"Uh-huh."

Stan waited for a few seconds, but Koji stayed quiet. He _definitely_ hadn't slept much either last night—both of them were typically up all night and then crashed around noon for a few hours.

After a few minutes had gone by, Stan was pretty sure that all of them (himself included) were more than halfway to dozing before the sound of the door opening brought them all back to attention.

"Has the fifth power condenser finished charging yet?" Allura was asking Coran.

"No, it's still at eighty-four percent," he replied, and they both paused when they saw the four of them.

Allura looked confused in an angry sense moments later. "How in the world did you get inside?" she demanded.

"The barrier went down, so we flew back in," Molly replied, a huff audible in her voice.

" _What_."

And with that, Stan was beginning to suspect that they were still going to have to deal with an overbearing manager of a sort.

Coran coughed forcibly, looking sheepish. "Uh, right. Sorry, princess—testing the fire suppressers in the aft guest wing caused the defenses to shut down. That, uh, never had the chance to be fixed."

Footsteps from the other end of the room preceded Shiro entering the room. "What're you guys doing in here? We're not taking a break."

Jordan fixed him with a betrayed look before saying " _Et_ _tu_ , Shiro?"

Stan hissed out a breath. _Now we have_ two _overbearing managers. Great._

"Not taking a—" Molly sputtered a bit before exclaiming "We barely got any sleep last night, and we just got shot at for—for _hours_!"

Allura was glowering at her at this point, but Coran cut in before she could say anything. "Perhaps we should move onto something easier. You're not going to be in the Lions all the time, after all."

"What do you mean by that?" Stan asked, wary, while Molly resorted to seething quietly.

"You'll need to be functional as a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and going up against Zarkon," the Altean man specified calmly. "Best place to work on that would be the training deck."

"What training deck?" Jordan asked suspiciously.

* * *

Coran chivvied them down to the so-called training deck after having the four of them (barring Shiro, who had his on to begin with) get their flight-suits on and make sure their bayards were stored in the uniforms. Jordan had to admit that the outfits were actually pretty comfortable, but the other three looked awkward for the first few minutes. _"Testing, testing,"_ the Altean said over the comm. _"You all hear me, yes?"_

"We hear you," Shiro replied.

 _"Right then!"_ Coran's tone brightened considerably—he probably expected it to have been not working. _"Now, if the five of you could arrange yourself in the center of the room so we could get started…"_ After they did as such, his tone turned more business-like. _"The Paladin Code demands that you put the safety of your teammates above your own, and this exercise will test that. Now, a swarm of drones is about to attack, and your objective is to do whatever you can to protect each other!"_

As if prompted by the words, a number of small white robots emerged from gaps that opened up in the walls, simultaneous with everyone's left gauntlets producing a translucent blue shield that, despite appearing unwieldy, weighed absolutely nothing.

Jordan was forced to stop wondering about it when the drones started firing with plasma rounds that he was hoping were set to _non-lethal_.

It went well for about ten seconds, before Jordan felt something hit him in the back that produced a static-y feeling, which was followed by the floor promptly opened up under him. It was a two-foot drop onto a different floor that, despite being padded, still smarted and knocked the breath out of him.

Five seconds later, Molly was down there too, landing flat on her back. She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, before groaning, putting her hands to her face.

"Uh, what just happened?" Jordan asked.

"I ducked," was the muttered response. Which was probably why they were both down there—they'd both been hit.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I probably would've done the same thing."

Molly didn't reply, instead sitting up and looking around. "Where's the way out of here?"

Jordan copied her action, and soon picked out a door on one wall. It refused to open for another minute or so, but when it did, it revealed a stairway (two, actually; one went further up) that opened out onto the main deck. Shiro, Stan, and Koji all looked winded, though Stan was quick to ask if they were both okay.

"Yeah," Jordan replied. "It wasn't a big fall."

Molly wasted no time in glaring up at the observation deck where Coran was. "How was _that_ supposed to be easy?"

 _"Er…well, perhaps I could've given you more of an in-depth explanation. Either way, this next one should be a breeze! Koji, you stay down there—the rest of you, come up here."_ Koji looked uncertain, but stayed put while the rest of them headed up the second stairway, which led up to the observation deck.

Molly took the opportunity to aim a more pointed glare at Coran, who cleared his throat in an awkward-sounding way before turning to press a few keys on a holoscreen.

Below, translucent walls flickered into existence, before vanishing. The suddenness of it made Koji jump a bit. "This one here is one of my favorites," Coran started, and then added with a flourish, "The invisible maze! If the five of you are to form Voltron, you'll need to have complete trust in each other. We can see the layout of the maze from up here, but whoever's on the floor can't. A word of caution: touching the walls will give you a _slight_ shock!"

 _"So who's giving me directions?"_ Koji asked. In response, Coran motioned to Stan, who stepped up to look at the monitor, and Jordan let himself relax. Those two were the epitome of teamwork already.

"Alright, so turn left and take three steps forward, turn right, and then take two steps that way," Stan said after studying the screen for a few seconds.

Below, Koji did as such, and promptly stumbled back, simultaneously with a blue flash of light and a sharp crackling sound. He stared at where he'd tried walking for a bit, before whirling around to look up at them. _"Stan, what was that for?"_

Stan visibly tensed, and took a deep breath before saying "I meant _my_ left."

Below, Koji stepped left, only to get shocked again. _"Stan!"_

"No, it's _behind_ you now—Koji, you're not listening!"

 _"And_ you're _not being specific enough!"_

 _No way…_ Jordan stared in dismayed incredulity at the spectacle that was the team's mechanics, who'd never even had a _disagreement_ as far as he knew, going at each other in what was rapidly devolving into a full-blown argument revolving around how well the other listened.

To the side, Shiro made a face when Koji started throwing in words that Jordan didn't understand—and if the expression Stan had then was any indicator, things were close to getting ugly.

 _Thankfully_ Coran intervened, pushing Stan away from the console and hitting a key on the screen, which was followed by a buzzing sound from the deck below.

"Okay, okay!" the Altean blurted, looking back and forth between them. Both had broken off mid-word and were more than a little red-faced, glaring at each another. "Let's…let's try something else with the Lions now, shall we?"

"They can argue with each other?" Molly whispered, stunned.

"I guess so," he whispered back, feeling unsettled. Either way, Stan and Koji refused to even _look_ at each other before they'd all split off in the direction of the Lions' hangars.

Shiro stopped both Jordan and Molly before they could get too far. He seemed to hesitate before asking, "Does that happen often, or…?"

"No," Molly answered. "We've never seen those two fight over _anything_ before."

"I mean, they look more worn-out than when they had to put the _Arrow_ back together after it got cut in half, so that might have to do with it," Jordan put in, before quickly adding, "And I don't think leaving them alone would be a good idea right now." Shiro looked troubled for a moment, before nodding in agreement.

Jordan still found himself feeling momentarily panicked when the Blue Lion's display monitors came up, but Blue herself was a calming presence just at the edge of his awareness before he could really start freaking out.

Blue was going to be handling the _flying_ until further notice, though. Yeah, sure, Jordan had done…a bit of steering earlier, which had felt awesome, but _still_.

The Lion looked a lot more complicated than the _Arrow_ , but it was almost like he had some kind of instinctive vague idea about her controls worked. Alien tech it might be, it was actually useful.

The Lions all flew out of their hangars, arcing upwards for some time before they levelled out, which suggested that maybe Yellow and Green had agreed on the detail of their pilots ( _still_ a weird thing to consider) needing some space from each other right now.

Jordan had no idea how high up they were, but if the fact that he could only make out sparse details about the ground below was anything to go on, it might have been standard airplane height. It also looked like it was late-afternoon now, which meant breakfast was more like lunch.

With the blue sky and white clouds, Arus looked almost like both of the other planets they'd already been on, save for the sun here being more orange in color, and the grass having a teal hue to it.

 _"An important part of being a Paladin is having complete trust in your Lion,"_ Coran said over the comm. Again with the "trust" thing.

 _"I think that's a given at this point,"_ Koji remarked snippily.

It was obvious that the statement had been referring to Jordan himself, but he settled for biting his tongue instead of returning fire. Not after that spectacle on the training deck.

 _"Perfect!"_ was the cheery response from Coran, apparently having missed the real intent of the words. _"You should all be able to pull this off with little issue, then. Now put your Lions into a nosedive!"_

Blue seemed puzzled as she did as such, and Jordan felt a prick of anxiety for himself when the ground started slowly becoming more detailed. "So uh, what's this one supposed to be?" he asked.

 _"Trigel's Dive,"_ was the response, and Blue's confusion immediately turned into startled disbelief. _"It's—well, it's actually an advanced technique that really none of you should be attempting until you've had a few years of Lion-flying experience, but we're in a bit of a rush here."_

Advanced? Oh no, Jordan did not like the sound of that _at all_.

 _"Really? This doesn't seem so bad,"_ Molly remarked over the comm. Then everything went dark, and there were panicked exclamations from her and the others. _"Uh, I take that back—why can't I see anything?!"_

 _"The goal is to see through your Lion's eyes,"_ Coran replied. _"And pull up at the last second!"_

Jordan gave himself a few seconds to make sure he didn't mishear that—and the thought that went through his head when it hit him that Coran wasn't joking was _Well_ _screw that!_

He tensed, getting ready to pull back on the handles (that _was_ pulling up, right?) but a mental prod from Blue stopped him before he could.

Blue was flying, Jordan was shooting.

That was a pretty big trust thing, now that he was thinking about it, so… _maybe_ he could _at least_ try.

"C'mon Jordan," he muttered to himself, tightening his hold on the handles. "S-So what if it's a weird alien thing?" He was _flying a_ _magic space lion_! This kind of stuff should be a breeze!

…emphasis on _should_ , because it sounded like even _Molly_ was borderline panicking about this, and that alone was making Jordan want to panic along with her.

Blue gave him another psychic poke. _Right, trust the Lion. Deep breaths. Shiro sounds calm._

Blue's little metaphorical camping spot was usually something like a little patch of frost on the back of his head, in a weird sort of way, unless he actually focused on her. Then she was more like a whole, icy ocean that was somehow intimidating and reassuring at the same time.

For one brief, _extremely_ surreal moment, Jordan could have sworn he saw the ground below flicker back into view, but a loud crashing sound followed by a startled cry from Molly spooked him into yanking the handles back. Blue's thrusters fired off instantly, whereas Red slammed heavily into the ground.

 _"Molly, Jordan, you both nearly had it there."_ Coran's tone was an encouraging one, and the words were followed by Jordan's visor going back to normal. _"We'll have to give it another go some other time."_

Blue was hovering just above the ground, pulling off an impression that Jordan was hesitantly translating as agreeing with Coran, and Red was on the ground, just standing up now.

Both Yellow and Green were stuck halfway _in_ the ground in front of them, which was more than likely where the crashing sounds came from.

From the mesa they were on, Jordan could see the Black Lion weaving between rock spires in the valley below, like Shiro could actually see where he's going. He sighed subconsciously at seeing that. _Figures._

Then again, Shiro was the guy that had smashed every single record the Garrison as a whole had to offer in terms of piloting, so it did make sense that he'd get the advanced flying technique right away…which Jordan himself may or may not have come close to also getting along with Molly…

Speaking of Molly. "You guys okay?" he asked, and three monitors came up. Molly looked dazed, nodding jerkily. Stan and Koji looked somewhere between irritable and mortified while their Lions pried themselves out of the ground.

Stan was muttering something darkly, and though Koji stayed quiet, the scowl on his face was enough of an answer in itself. _Maybe they were trying to prove a point to each other or something._

Seeing those two angry at each other was scary. Actually _scary_.

 _"Okay, this next one is going to be more relaxing,"_ Coran was saying now. Jordan wasn't really trusting him right now, even if he was starting to sound as weary as Jordan was feeling. _"Meet me back on the training deck."_

 _"I'll believe that when I see it,"_ Molly muttered over the comm as the Lions turned toward the castle.

* * *

The first impression Jordan got of the next thing, once they were all there and sitting in a loose circle, was stiff plastic headset which was mildly uncomfortable to have on.

 _"This technique will be_ essential _in forming Voltron,"_ Coran said over the comm. _"The five of you have to learn to lower your barriers, and keep them down. Focus on your Lion, and nothing else!"_

That actually did sound easy. But of course, Jordan jinxed himself yet again with that thought, because something sidetracked him almost as soon as that it was through his head.

Beyond Blue's chill, there was…something else. Three of them, actually, all being a jumbled swirl of ideas and emotions held at a distance, only partially-glimpsed like a silhouette behind an opaque curtain.

Across from him, Jordan saw one of Stan's eyes twitch, before he growled "Mind your own business, Koji." Jordan started a little when there was a prick of frustration from one of those other presences, coinciding with the low-toned words.

"I'm not doing anything!" was the immediate retort, and a flare of annoyance from a second point coincided with _that_ , too. There was also an indistinct sensation that was borderline unpleasant there too, like a headache.

"Knock it off, you two," Shiro said sharply, a stern feeling coming across from the third one as he gave the mechanics a look that Jordan had seen his uncle pull on his cousins a few times—and that was when it hit Jordan.

 _Holy shit, he was being literal._ Coran had called this a "mind-meld" exercise, and Jordan was now _pretty sure_ that those other three are Shiro, Stan, and Koji…but shouldn't there be _four_?

Jordan glanced sideways at where Molly was sitting. She had her eyes shut tight, and looked like she was trying to focus—on the Red Lion, probably. Now that he had his attention on her, he was barely aware of a fourth other presence, almost completely in the background: it was a small, prickly-seeming spark of heat, and he could _just_ pick up a creeping unease from her.

Moments later, Molly opened one eye slightly and glanced back at him, and the unease became more noticeable. _"Focus, everyone!"_ Coran reminded, startling all five of them.

 _Blue,_ Jordan told himself firmly in his head, brow furrowing in concentration. _Think of Blue._ He saw a small hologram of the Blue Lion appear a few inches away from his forehead. _"That's it. Now, bring your Lions together!"_

"Is this really necessary?" Koji asked. The small hologram of the Green Lion halfway to the center of the room stopped, flickering, and the sense of foreign irritation was a lot more noticeable now.

 _"Yes, it is,"_ Coran affirmed. _"You have to be able to coordinate your thoughts, and there can't be any walls or secrets between you."_

The unease dropped into a sort of numb shock, and Molly's face went slack, coinciding with Red's barely-there hologram winking out of existence entirely.

To the side, Jordan saw Shiro frown, and the Black Lion's hologram paused where it was floating. "Molly, is something—?"

He stopped mid-word, simultaneously with Jordan feeling the mental equivalent to having a window being slammed shut on his fingers. Judging by the others' breathing hitching, they all had felt it too.

It corresponded with Molly ripping the headset off, throwing it across the room, and bolting out. "Wha'—Molly?!" Jordan scrambled to his feet and moved to start after her, but before he could make it to the door Allura came into the room from the opposite door, face stormy.

"And where do you think you're going?" she asked icily. Jordan's eyes narrowed in response. "Clearly, you're all worse off than I initially thought. Coran, ready the Gladiator!"

 _Gladiator?_

 _"Uh, yes Princess. Everyone, put the headsets aside, and have your bayards ready. In order to defeat the Gladiator, five Paladins must fight as one…or, well, four works too, I suppose."_ His voice quieted toward the end, and he sounded hesitant for the entire explanation.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jordan heard Stan mutter as they left the headsets on a stand to one side of the room, which was retracted into the wall. Allura had gone up to the observation deck in the meantime.

The four of them meandered over to the center of the room, bayards soon in hand for the three the direction applied to, and Jordan looked around. _I don't see anything…_

He stiffened when he heard a _thud_ behind him, and he turned around in time to see Koji get sent sprawling, the green bayard spiraling across the floor. Jordan's military intuition had been correct—it was a combat simulator, by means of a training robot.

It was also apparent not even three seconds later that, even when they were pissed at each other, one rule always applied between the team's mechanics: hurting one in front of the other resulted in all safeties going off.

Stan forwent his bayard entirely, rushing at the robot, but that didn't end well for him, with the robot swinging its staff around and hitting in the side of the head. Them having their helmets made a lot of sense now.

A low-pitched droning sound preceded Shiro's prosthetic lighting up, and the robot turned to charge at him…and then Shiro froze.

Jordan quickly intercepted it by firing on it with his bayard (the laser rounds were cerulean instead of the standard yellow of standard firearm from Earth) and while that did get its attention, it deflected every single round with its staff, and Jordan found his feet being swept out from under him seconds later.

He was promptly sent flying into Shiro, who hadn't moved—he'd gone wide-eyed and pale-faced the moment the Gladiator had started toward him.

Thankfully, the robot's cyan highlights dimmed in a way that signified it was done, what with them all being on the floor.

Allura, on the other hand, was far from done: "What was _that_?" she hissed, marching over to them.

"That was you trying to _kill us_ ," Stan replied angrily, picking himself up off the floor and returning the glare.

"That simulator was set at a level fit for a child! And where did Molly run off to, anyways? She's not exempt from this!"

"Beats me," Jordan muttered. "She'll come back when she wants to." He wasn't going to admit it out loud right now, but he was wondering that too.

Coran cleared his throat, having followed Allura down. "Perhaps we should call it a day, princess? It _is_ only day-one, after all."

Jordan was _slightly_ appeased to know that they weren't the only ones who would ever be on the receiving end of Allura's ire. The look she was giving Coran was implying that she was considering ripping the mustache right off his face, but he didn't even flinch.

It was a stalemate for a few long moments, until she sighed, grumbling "I suppose you're right," before turning and leaving the room. Coran still had some points of merit left thanks to that; he went after her, but to what ends, Jordan had no idea.

He heard the door on the opposite side of the room open and close, and looked over his shoulder to see that both Stan had left the room as well. Koji was also heading that way, muttering something under his breath about going to take a nap. A smaller detail of the weirdness the headsets had brought came back to Jordan; maybe Koji really did have a headache. _That_ _might why he snapped at Stan so fast earlier._

Shiro sighed next to him, putting a hand up to his face, before seeming to think of something. "You wouldn't happen to know why Molly ran out like that, would you?"

"No," Jordan replied curtly, and paused. "Are you okay?" Something about the way Shiro had frozen like that there didn't sit right with him.

Shiro hesitated for just a moment before smiling a bit. "Don't worry about me. Why don't you go relax for a while?"

In most cases like this, Jordan would have let go of it then and there—he was just _beat_ right now—and if Shiro said he was okay, he probably was.

This time, though, he had a nagging feeling that right now wasn't the time for that choice, and Blue rumbled her assent in the back of his head. "I think we should go try to find her." Before Shiro could say anything else, Jordan added, "Bad stuff usually happens when she runs off."

Grooor's tantrum in the tavern, the near-disaster that was the race against Ceres, and the actual disaster that was the race against the Nourasian were all good examples of that.

Truthfully, Jordan wasn't sure Molly had completely forgiven him for that last one yet, or Stan and Koji considering their part in it; when Don had tried getting them to convince her to come out of her room, she'd thrown various hard objects at them as soon as the door had opened.

"Alright," Shiro conceded after a moment. "Where should we start?"

"Uh…good question."

* * *

Stan was quickly faced with the reminder that, unless there was some equipment lying around somewhere that would work with the _Arrow_ , they had no way of even _looking at_ the full extent of the damage taken that night on Alwas. _Maybe I'll ask Coran later,_ he thought, before glancing over his shoulder at one of the shuttles.

They weren't too different from Earth ships, apparently—but they were still made from alien tech that was _leagues_ ahead of anything they had back home. It was worth trying to at least look at it.

Granted, it took a while to even get the panel open, considering that he had to go look for the right tool to open it up with.

The shuttle was definitely… _different_ than what he was used to looking at, having an assortment of wires connected to several rhombus-shaped blue-glowing crystals. He could make out one larger crystal further in, but Stan could not for the life of him see anything that even remotely _looked_ like a fuel tank.

 _What does this thing run on then, sunlight?_ It wasn't likely, since he couldn't see anything resembling solar panels either. The Yellow Lion's presence was starting to feel like something between amused and a little exasperated, giving an impression of the word _guess_ when Stan tried asking him.

The sound of the door opening got him to glance over his shoulder. Koji stopped when he noticed, and there was three seconds' worth of awkward silence before he ducked his head a little and walked over to the _Arrow_.

During that hour, it had occurred to Stan that the headache-like feeling he'd had while they'd all had those headsets on might've been one of the others _actually_ _having a headache_ —and with everything else that had been going on, he hadn't noticed the telltale signs that it was the case with Koji earlier.

So he'd started feeling pretty guilty about ten minutes ago. _Better to get it over with now,_ he thought, before saying "Sorry for snapping at you earlier."

There was no response for roughly half a minute. Just as Stan was beginning to think it was too soon, he heard Koji reply quietly with "I'm the one that should be saying that. You were right—I wasn't listening."

"I still shouldn't have gone off on you like that. You feeling okay now?"

Koji nodded, before wincing a little. "That was kind of my own fault, I think. I tried asking the Green Lion something earlier, and…well…"

"Asking her what?"

"Just—what they were." Koji shrugged his shoulders a bit before adding "Whatever the answer is, I guess it's not something a human brain can translate."

Stan snorted a bit. "Of course not." Then he noticed the drone. "And we should name that thing or something."

Koji looked back at it too. "I guess you have a point. Got any ideas?"

How did one name a robot? It was silver in color, but that would be too plain of a name.

Cultural references would just get Jordan to tease them both about it if he recognized it, and he recognized practically _everything_. Even the stuff from the early 2000's would be connected to a name after a few minutes.

Stan gave up after mulling it over for a few minutes. "I don't know, Rover?"

"Well, that's better than nothing," Koji agreed. "I'm wondering if I could program some new functions onto it." A pause. "After we fix what we can on the _Arrow_ , anyways."

"Yeah…"

Fix what they could, with only a wrench and a screwdriver for equipment. _Yeah, right._

The door sounded again, followed by a "So this is where you two went!" from Coran, who jogged over to them. "Working on your ship?" The Altean paused, taking note of the open panel on the shuttle, and took on a dubious tone. "Or on one of the shuttles?"

"We can't actually fix anything right now," Koji replied to the first question, adjusting his glasses.

"I was just looking at this thing." Stan gestured to the shuttle. "Where's the fuel tank on it?"

"There isn't one." Coran made a show of pointing out the larger crystal further in. "That there is the power source."

"The crystal?" Stan didn't need to look at Koji to guess what his current expression was. "How does that work?"

"The crystals are infused with a fair amount of quintessence," was the response given. "One crystal can keep a shuttle going for decaphoebs, hence why they're still operable to begin with!"

While Stan still wasn't entirely sure what the word _decaphoeb_ meant, the context Coran used it with, along with Allura's usage of the word the day before, implied that it might be the Altean equivalent of a year. He wasn't sure what "quintessence" was either—some kind of power source probably.

Coran's attention wandered to the _Arrow_. "Now, this is the first Earth ship I've seen. Do they all look like this?"

"It's what a star-racer usually looks like," Stan replied guardedly.

"Aha, so it's a specialized ship, then!" Coran nodded like he's just had something confirmed. "How does it work?"

Stan made use of the crate that was left form this morning to get onto the left reactor. "The short version is that she's got two magnetic-field generators, one for each reactor. Most vehicles on Earth have at least one, and really old ones don't have any."

Coran looked both intrigued and a little skeptical, but not lost. "Magnetism, eh? Well, that definitely wouldn't work very well on Ekkunar…but I know there's a repair-drone lying around here _somewhere_ that should have some tools that'll work on your, ah, star-racer." He chuckled before adding "This brings me back to the time Queen Melenor dragged us all out to the interplanetary racing competition in the Valentia Quadrant—now _that_ was some cutthroat competition! Of course, it was right after some loopholes in the rules became known but hadn't gotten around to being written out, so all the teams were running around procuring all sorts of upgrades for their ships…"

 _Upgrades_. Suddenly, a few half-forgotten plans came racing back to mind. "Koji, the upgrade plans!"

Koji looked lost for a few seconds. "The upgrade plans? What about the— _oh_!"

They hadn't had the time to even think about the upgrade plans on Alwas, but now they _did_ have time; why just repair the _Arrow_ when they could also _improve_ her at the same time?

Coran paused, tilting his head slightly to one side in a manner that indicated they'd lost him, but before Stan could say anything the door sounded for the third time, this time preceding both Jordan and Shiro coming in. "So this is where the hangar is," the former muttered.

The latter caught sight of them first. "Have any of you seen Molly?"

"No," Koji replied, enthusiasm fading into concern. "Why?"

"I think we might've just gone through maybe half of this place trying to find her," Jordan replied, brow furrowed a little. Then he asked "Hey, uh, is her rocket-seat in the _Arrow_?"

Stan looked over the remains of the cockpit's glass covering (that had to get replaced too) before answering "No, it's not. So she's probably not even in here."

"Coran, do these suits have any sort of tracking beacon?" Shiro asked.

"They do, but I'm not sure if the castle's functional enough to make use of them. A full system reboot can take up to twenty vargas, barring any hiccups. We'll have to go check." He glanced back at Stan and Koji. "Good conversation boys, and I'm glad to see you've settled your dispute. You'll have to tell me more about your Earth ships some other time!"

Both he and Shiro were gone from the hangar shortly after, leaving the three others standing there quietly for a short time. "He seems okay," Stan said finally, scratching at the back of his head. Koji nodded, whereas Jordan made a neutral sound.

"He's better than Miss High-and-Mighty, at least," the gunner mumbled. Chances were that he was referring to Allura.

Koji looked sideways at him. "You know she and Coran woke up from a stasis yesterday to find out that their whole planet got destroyed a long time ago, right?"

Jordan looked back at him, and then at the floor. For a few seconds, one of his eyebrows twitched a bit, before he hissed in a breath and blurted " _Well I guess anyone would act like a jerk after that_."

Koji really did have a point in saying that, now that Stan was thinking about it too. Jordan looked between the two of them then uncertainly, before asking, "You guys okay now?"

"Yeah," Stan replied, after glancing down at Koji. "Just an off-day, I guess." Koji muttered something that Stan didn't catch completely, but it sounded like an agreement.

Stan looked back at the empty cockpit. _Maybe we should just put a new steering column in while we're at it._ One with an adjustable seat. And now that his thoughts were more on Molly, Stan found himself wondering just what made her run off like that, too.

* * *

"Princess?" Coran's voice broke Allura out of her focus on the castle's systems; she started a little before turning to face him. "I was wondering if the castle can get a read on Molly's location."

"She's not inside?"

"Not from what Jordan and I could find, no," Shiro replied; he'd been standing a ways behind Coran, so Allura hadn't noticed him until he'd spoken up.

Frowning, she turned to the display screens, bringing up the necessary one. "It looks like she's on the nearby shoreline. There's a path down the cliff leading to it, so you shouldn't need the Black Lion." He picked up on the silent request, nodding and turning to leave.

For a few doboshes after that, the only sounds heard were those from the consoles, before Coran cleared his throat quietly. "While we're on the subject of the paladins, princess—I think Shiro and Jordan might be the only ones who understand the situation at least halfway."

Allura looked at him again for a few long ticks, and then back at the screens. The various progress bars were moving at an infuriatingly-slow pace. "You think I was too harsh on them today."

"Well, I wouldn't say _harsh_ , but, uh…maybe a little."

She sighed, glancing over her shoulder at him again. "Coran, Zarkon's had ten-thousand decaphoebs to prepare for _us_. We can't afford to go easy on them. They still haven't managed to form Voltron!" Even with just the one battlecruiser, it was worryingly obvious how far the Galra had advanced in terms of technology.

They just didn't have the _time_ to go easy on them.

Coran winced slightly. "You're not entirely wrong about that…"  
"But?" Allura could sense that word hanging unsaid.

" _But_ they aren't the paladins of old," the adviser reminded gently. "Their predecessors had years of experience before the Lions were even built. These five don't."

Allura bit her lip. Coran was right—Shiro must have had some experience, with how he'd handled the prior quintant's situation, but the rest of them had just been following his orders. "What are we supposed to do, then?"

"I'm sure we'll all work something out along the way," Coran said optimistically. "Like my pop-pop always said, there's more than one way to convince a duflax to fly!" Despite the tension, Allura heard herself chuckle at that.

She knew Jordan's primary issue already—he was terrified of piloting the Blue Lion. True, he'd gotten into the cockpit somewhat willingly that morning, but he had a _long_ road ahead of him.

It was clear at first glance that Koji wasn't one for physical exertion, given his slim build, but it was also apparent that he had both a keen mind and an aptitude for learning new things. The Green Lion had stepped in and sheepishly excused his disappearance earlier in the day with some guilt on her end, with a question having an answer no one but the Lions themselves could understand. (Allura vaguely recalled her father having attempted to ask that same question to the Lions, earning a similar result.)

Stan, she couldn't be too sure of yet. He seemed almost laidback in how he was accepting the changes, though there seemed to be some level of belligerence present.

The Yellow Lion was very much the same way at the time, at least in relation to Allura. From what she could tell with the rudimentary link she had to him, he was still doing something not unlike testing the waters, and that left her feeling uneasy. Training would get absolutely nowhere if a bond with the Lion wasn't present.

And Molly…from what Allura had seen of her so far, she was an amazing pilot, even at her young age—and her _age_ was still a sore subject. King Alfor had been centuries older, and he hadn't been able to stand against Zarkon, so how could a _child_?

She felt a hand on her shoulder, before Coran said "Things will work out in the end, princess. Just have faith in the new paladins. They'll get there eventually."

Allura nodded slowly. "I'll…I'll try. Thank you, Coran."

* * *

Either the day seemed to have passed faster than they usually did, or Arusian days were just shorter. Either way, the sky was bright orange by the time he made it to the end of the crude road that had been hewn along the bluff that the castle was set on, leading all the way down to the shoreline.

The rock hadn't even fully transitioned to sand before he was able to hear music, more likely from Molly's discman. She didn't seem to notice him approaching, so he stopped a few feet away and waited for the song to end. Surprisingly, the mice were with her—three of them were sitting on the sand looking up at her, while the fourth one was on her shoulder.

The sound faded out after a bit, with Molly moving to hit a button on the device before asking "Did you guys like it?" A series of squeaks came in response that Shiro vaguely interpreted as agreements. Then Molly looked up a bit more, and started fiercely. "Shiro? Wh-What are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you," he replied calmly, before frowning a bit. "Jordan was worried about you."

"I…oh." She looked confused for a few seconds, as though she'd expected a harsher response, before standing up. "Wait, how long was I out here?"

"At least an hour. We should probably get back to the castle."

Molly didn't say anything, instead starting toward the path after picking up the other three mice. The walk was silent, at least until roughly the halfway point; Shiro decided to take a shot in the dark, asking "Is everything alright?"

She paused mid-step. "I'm fine. I just needed some space."

Evasiveness at its finest, and Shiro momentarily found himself thinking of Keith. _I wonder how he's doing._

Probably not well, if the Kerberos Mission had been reported as a complete failure with the entire team being lost, and that thought sent an unpleasant feeling through Shiro. (No, Keith would not have taken that well _at all_.)

Either way, it was likely that Molly wouldn't talk about it until she was ready to. Shiro just hoped they had the time necessary.

The others were already in the dining hall when they got there, after making a detour to the hangar so Molly could leave the rocket-seat by the _Arrow_ , and Jordan stood up when he noticed them. "Molly, uh—about earlier…"

She tensed, and he stopped at noticing that, instead opting for sitting down again. Stan and Koji remained quiet, although they exchanged a quick glance. Overlooking the dispute of earlier, the mechanics worked fantastically well together, and Molly and Jordan appeared to be fairly familiar with one another.

But aside from that? Shiro hadn't seen much even in terms of _interaction_ outside of that divide, which indicated that Coran's insistence on team-bonding exercises, as unorthodox as they were, might be sorely needed.

Coran himself had observed the exchange quietly from where he'd been sitting, and once dinner was over with, he ushered them all up to the bridge. Allura glanced over her shoulder at them from where she was working on something before turning to face them fully, clearing her throat, standing up straighter and holding her arms firmly at her sides.

"I owe you all an apology," she started, voice even. "I was overly harsh on the five of you today. The Lions may have chosen you all to be their Paladins, but you've also had a lot thrust upon you in a very short amount of time, and have found yourselves very, _very_ far from home."

"I think all of us understand that, Princess," Shiro said, glancing sideways at the others. Stan and Koji turned their attention to the floor, and Molly mumbled something under her breath. Jordan remained stubbornly silent, glaring to the side.

"But you must understand the severity of our situation," Allura went on, and the starmap flickered into view as the windows blacked out. Judging by the amounts of swirled and elliptical shapes Shiro could see, it was the entire thing.

She hit another key, and a vast majority of the map changed in color from blue to an orange-red color.

The change of atmosphere in the room was instant. "Those the distress signals you were talking about this morning?" Stan asked uneasily.

"I'm afraid so," Allura confirmed solemnly. Jordan cursed quietly, face slackening in dismay, and Koji paled. Shiro felt a prick of subdued anger from Black in the back of his mind. "Our goal is to free all of those planets and systems from Zarkon's control—which means we have a lot of work ahead of us."

Coran cleared his throat to get their attention, and offered a small, silver medicinal capsule to each of them. "You all looked ready to fall asleep on your feet earlier, so I'm going to assume last night wasn't very restful," he said upon seeing their bemused looks. "Just don't take them until you're fully prepared to go to sleep, because you'll be out faster than an angry eakhyst can sprint!"

* * *

It was almost too much of a relief to finally flop down onto the bed, because today had been exhausting in more ways than one. Physically, it was because she'd woken up so many times the night before she had lost count, and then had to fight through the gauntlet that was today.

Mentally, it was a different story altogether. It hadn't seemed like anyone had picked up on anything important earlier, which was a _huge_ relief.

Them having to figure out how to "coordinate their thoughts" had an alarming implication to begin with—but it wasn't just an implication. The whole "mind-meld" thing was a constant affliction, and that was right up there with Eva not knowing what happened to her dad or to Rick, if not _higher_ than that.

Then there was what Allura had showed them. Something about seeing most of the map light up orange like that had been frightening, somehow, but Eva wasn't exactly sure why.

At the same time, the fact that all that orange represented which parts of space were inhabited by extremely-hostile aliens that might even have the _Crogs_ outgunned might've been part of it.

She wasn't sure how long she ended up staring at the ceiling, but she was brought back to the present by a mental poke from Red—and the next thing she knew, she was reliving something. Specifically, when she had first made use of her "Molly" alias.

Which she _had not_ told Red about.

"H-Hey, I never said you could pick through my head!" Eva protested aloud, glaring at the ceiling now, even though it was really aimed at the Lion. Red replied with a wearily-exasperated feeling.

It made an unfortunate amount of sense that it would be next to impossible to keep something secret from a sentient robotic lion that was sharing headspace with her, and Eva stifled a groan when that hit her.

Red then threw a few rapid-fire images at her: Jordan, Stan, Koji, Shiro, Allura, Coran, and the view of the castle they'd had when returning to Arus after getting the Yellow Lion. It was followed by another disconcertingly-realistic flashback.

 _"The name's Ev—it's_ Molly _, got it Gunner Boy?"_

Eva sat up. "What're you trying to say?" She actually did have an idea on what the Lion was getting at, but she didn't like it one bit.

Red psychically rolled his nonexistent eyes, before the first two-and-a-half words were repeated, followed by Coran's words of _"There can't be any secrets between you."_

Eva's following act of defiance was to down the capsule Coran had provided them each with, because Red couldn't bother her about this if she was asleep. The spike of annoyance from the Lion when he realized what she did was all too noticeable.

The first thing she noted about it was that it had a flavoring akin to a bizarre cross between peaches and overcooked spinach.

The second thing was that an angry eakhyst was _extremely_ fast.


	6. Reckoning

FINALLY GOT REWRITTEN!

* * *

 **Arc I: Race's End**

 **Reckoning**

The good news is that not only did whatever that medicine was _work_ , Eva didn't wake up to hearing an _alarm-that-wasn't_ this time. The bad news was that, by the look of the table, breakfast was the rations again.

"Is there coffee in space?" Stan was asking, looking at Coran.

"I'm unfamiliar with this _coffee_ of yours," was the bemused response. "What is it?"  
"It's…ugh, just a thing to help you wake up in the morning," the mechanic grumbled, slumping in the chair.

The Altean looked thoughtful, before snapping his fingers. "I think I might know of something like that, actually. I'll put it on the shopping list."

"Space coffee," Jordan muttered. "Great."

"Where's Allura?" Eva asked, sitting down next to him.

"On the bridge," Shiro replied, frowning a bit before asking "How much longer until the castle's fully repaired?"

"At least another quintant." Coran huffed a little. "I already have a few pages' worth of sections of the castle that have corroded wirings, and I'm probably going to have a few more pages by the time I'm done checking everything."

Eva listened to them going back and forth while getting breakfast over with (the green substance was just as unappetizing as it had been both days before), before looking sideways at Jordan. "Hey Jordan, d'you think they'd notice if we went out for a little while?"

Jordan looked at her, then at the others, and back again before shrugging a little. Eva carefully stood up, making sure not to move the chair, and started inching toward the doorway. But of course, right before they could step into the hallway, Shiro asked "Where are you two going?"

"Uh…for a walk?" Eva forced a smile when she looked back at him.

Shiro raised one eyebrow in response, before saying "If you're going to go further than the beach, at least bring your bayards. We don't know what's out there."

"But we're—uh…sure." She cut the pre-prepared protest off, blinking a few times in surprise, turning to start down the hall before anyone could say anything and earning a startled protest from Jordan.

Luckily, the room where the suits and bayards were kept was on the way down to the entrance. "You didn't have to—take off like that, you know," Jordan said between breaths once they were outside.

"I guess not," she mumbled, feeling a little self-conscious. "I just wasn't expecting him to let us go out so easily."

"Well, he's _nothing_ like Don Wei, that's for sure."

"Y-Yeah."

They spent what felt like ten minutes crossing the moderately-sized plain below the bluff the castle was on; Eva paused to glance back up at the building when they'd reached the shadow cast by what might've been a bridge to… _something_ , once. Jordan whistled, also looking. "Sheesh, I knew the place was huge, but it looks even bigger from down here."

The plain's grass got steadily taller the further away from the shore they went, reaching waist-height by the time they reached a tall, knobby-looking tree on top of a hill. "It's kind of nice out here, actually," Eva said, experimentally pulling on the lowest branch a bit with her free hand.

Jordan made a noncommittal sound in response, turning the blue bayard over in his hands a few times before narrowing his eyes a bit and activating it. "How the heck do these things even work? It's just—you think about it, and _poof_ , it's a—a whatever."

"Beats me," she muttered in response, looking at her own. She hadn't needed it so far, which…was probably a good thing, considering that she didn't know how it was even supposed to work. It took its bow-shape with a string, but there wasn't anything for arrows.

Jordan stared at it for a few seconds. "Is it broken or something?"

Eva nearly jumped when Red's presence came into focus; he seemed to be denying it being broken. "I don't think so," she said slowly, scowling at it a little. "What am I supposed to do, hit people with it?"

"Well, that part looks pretty sharp," Jordan pointed out, gesturing to what looked like a sharp spike on one end of the bow.

"I'd—I don't think I'd want to use that though." She dismissed the bow before looking up toward the top of the tree. The branches all _looked_ pretty stable. "Hey, race you to the top!" she shouted, launching herself at the lowest branch.

"Wha'?! _Molly_!" He sputtered a little before following her up the branches of the tree. "You could've at least given me a _little_ warning there," he huffed when they'd reached the top. She just shrugged in response; they'd gotten there at roughly the same time either way.

"It's a pretty nice view up here, isn't it?" she asked.

"Well…I guess so." Jordan stood up on his branch, holding onto the trunk of the tree to keep his balance, and looked around, before going stiff. "Whoa, Molly, look at that," he exclaimed quietly, pointing. Eva stood up and followed his gaze.

In the distance, she could _just_ make out a silhouette that looked a little too jagged to be a hill. "Is that what I think it is?" she asked uneasily.

"I think so."

Eva furtively glanced back toward the castle, and then at the distant object. Now that she was thinking about it, that _was_ the general area where Sendak's ship had gone down. She just hadn't thought they would've been able to see it from the lower altitude.

"I almost wanna go out there to get a closer look at it, but…" Jordan bit his lip a little.

"But _what_?" Eva started back down. "Maybe we'll find something there that Coran could use to get the castle fixed up quicker."

"I-I don't know—"

"Jordan, you _just_ said you wanted to go take a look at it," Eva exclaimed, giving him an exasperated look. He didn't reply, instead staring at something. "Jordan?" She glanced over her shoulder…and then she saw it. Or, well, him?

The alien staring back at them was roughly three feet tall and looked kind of like a salamander—at least, if salamanders stood upright and had ram-horns. He was also carrying what looked like a makeshift sword, being either a jagged rock or maybe a tooth that used to belong to a large animal or something fastened to a stick.

"Molly, don't move," Jordan hissed, holding his bayard up.

"Don't even _think about it_ ," she shot back at the same volume, feeling momentarily angry at him. She knew Jordan probably had a reason for being so distrustful when it came to aliens, but they'd _just met_ this one. Glancing back at the alien, who hadn't moved, she smiled a little. "Um, hi. Who are—"

The alien screamed, diving into the foliage, and for a few seconds, neither of them did anything. Then Eva rounded on the gunner. "Oh, way to go Jordan."

"Hey, I was just being cautious!" he retorted.

She rolled her eyes, before looking at the grass again. "Hey, uh, we're—not gonna hurt you, okay?"

There wasn't any response for a few seconds. Then the alien jumped back out at them, exclaiming something Eva assumed was supposed to be a battle-cry, with him brandishing the makeshift sword. To the side, Jordan tensed, but she elbowed him to keep him from doing anything.

"Who are you and from where did you come?" the Arusian demanded, holding the sword a little higher.

"Well—" Eva broke off with a half-formed startled sound when the Red Lion snapped to attention, surprise radiating from him, though she shook her head a bit before saying "We came from up there," while pointing at the castle. "And I'm…huh?"

The alien had gasped not-exactly-quietly, staring at them with wide eyes now, before practically throwing himself onto the dirt, mumbling something both too quiet and too quick for Eva to really catch, though she thought she heard something in there that sounded vaguely like _lion-goddess_.

They both stared at him for a few seconds before turning to each other. Eva was pretty sure her expression mirrored Jordan's confused one. _What the heck is he talking about?_

* * *

Shiro wasn't exactly expecting Molly and Jordan to come back with a local alien in tow. Or for the aforementioned alien to go into full-blown deferential mode when he saw the rest of them; Allura had used the intercom to let them all know to get to the entry hall, since she'd seen them coming first.

It was probably a miracle that the castle's translator worked for the Arusian language too. He hadn't caught much of the Arusian's mutterings, but he at least heard that the little guy was named Klaizap.

Allura, however, must have, with how her face flushed. "Oh, I think—I think there may be a misunderstanding here. I'm as ordinary as you are, Klaizap."

Klaizap's expression cycled through surprise, disbelief, and dismay before he said, "Then we are doomed," forlornly.

"What do you mean by that?" Shiro asked.

He shifted anxiously before saying "In the past few sun-cycles, fire has rained onto the land, and great beasts have been seen in the sky."

It took a few moments for Shiro's brain to put the puzzle together, and even then, the Black Lion beat him to it, suddenly seeming _slightly_ self-conscious.

Allura also seemed to realize what the Arusian was talking about. "Klaizap, I believe we owe you and your people an apology," she said. "Could you bring us to your village?" He nodded in response, seeming relieved now, and the princess put a hand up to one of her earrings before saying, "Coran, we're going to meet with the Arusians. Would you like to come with us?" There was a pause before she turned around. "Coran is going to stay to put the final touches on the castle's engines and the main turbine. He'd like for one or two of you to remain here to help."

"Wait, why does the castle have an engine?" Molly asked, confused.

"For the same reason any ship has an engine." Allura seemed puzzled herself at the question. "Do Earth vehicles run on different layouts?"

There was a three-second pause. "Wait a sec, you mean this _whole thing_ —" Stan pointed at the castle. "Is a _ship_?!"

At the same time, Koji stammered out, "But the—the thrust it would need to even get airborne is _phenomenal_! How does it even…?"

"I'm sure Coran would be happy to answer any of your questions about the castle's mechanisms," Allura said in response, amused, and they both stared at her for a few seconds before identical looks of realization crossed their faces. The next thing Shiro knew, they'd both turned and ran back inside.

"Huh. Those two can move pretty fast when they want to," Shiro observed. The castle was a ship. Somehow, that didn't seem as far-fetched as he thought it would be.

Molly shrugged a little, whereas Jordan said "Have fun getting them back outside."

Something else occurred to Shiro then. "Princess, aren't the prisoners we rescued from Sendak's ship going to be waking up soon?"

She froze, face faltering. "Oh…they are, yes. Someone is going to have to be there when they do."

"I can do that," he offered quickly. One of them had recognized him then, on the ship, and Shiro wanted to know just _how_ he was recognized.

"Wait, what prisoners?" Molly had turned to look at Shiro with wide eyes. He quickly thought back to the day before, and recalled after a few moments that he'd never had the chance to mention it to her. Or to Stan, for that matter. _Whoops._

"There were some aliens on that ship, but Shiro and Koji got 'em out of there," Jordan explained, voice a little quieter than normal.

"…oh." Her gaze flicked toward the ground, and Shiro was faced with the sudden reminder that she was more than likely the youngest person present.

He had to come up with a way to break the full extent of the situation to her, and soon. But first, he had a mission of a more personal matter to deal with.

Given that there were various blankets piled by each active pod along with one of the various serving-drones (this one looking like a floating tray) having a few mugs full of some kind of steaming beverage, Coran had been keeping on top of when the rescued aliens would be waking up—and Shiro got down there precisely a minute before that started happening.

They regarded him with the same silent wonder that they had on the battlecruiser, with only the one that had spoken then saying "Champion. No amount of thanks will ever be able to express our gratitude."

"Champion. Why do you keep calling me that?" Shiro asked, frowning a little.

Silence came in response, with expressions of disbelieving comprehension crossing all of the aliens present. "You don't remember?" another one asked, tilting their head to one side.

"I can't remember much of anything between getting captured and after escaping," he admitted. "If there's anything at all you can tell me, I'd appreciate it."

The first one who'd spoken gazed into his mug for a few long moments, before saying "I know how you earned the title Champion, but you may not like hearing the story."

The Arusians lived in a hamlet nestled in some hills, with a cliff face off to one side and a forest to another, which also featured a decently-sized lake that had been easily visible from the Blue Lion's altitude.

Given that the village was a few miles (though it was still close enough for the translator to work) from the castle, Allura had decided for the three of them to take the Lions there.

She'd also insisted that both he and Molly get into uniform before they go out; something about making a good first impression. Jordan found himself remembering something Rick had said when they'd first arrived on Alwas, with the team being the Earth's ambassadors during the race.

Klaizap had been ogling everything in the castle up until they'd reached Blue, where he'd thrown himself down into a bow again. Jordan had rolled his eyes at it, Allura had sighed a bit, and Blue herself had seemed amused by the action.

Judging by the reactions of the other Arusians, they all had the same idea Klaizap had at the start, which was partially why Jordan tuned most of it out. Molly started looking a little bored after a few minutes, glancing around a bit, before saying "Hey, um, Jordan?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you—" She paused, biting her lip. "Do you think that Sendak and those other aliens were the only ones on that ship?"

Jordan started a bit, not having expected that question, though he remembered to keep his voice down. "Well, uh—I think so. I didn't see anyone else when I was looking for the Blue Lion. Just a bunch of robots."

They were both quiet for a little while, watching Allura talk to the Arusians' leader. They were too far away to hear clearly, but by the sound of it, there had been a few _other_ misunderstandings earlier, not including the whole _lion-goddess_ thing. "Y'know, I think these guys might be further behind than the Scrubs," Jordan commented.

Molly shrugged in response. Then she said, "You know we're probably gonna be seeing nothing but aliens for a while, right?"

Jordan groaned. "Ugh, don't remind me." She scowled a little, but didn't say anything. Blue, on the other hand, gave him the mental equivalent of nipping the back of his head, and Jordan had to bite his tongue to keep himself from yelping out loud.

 _What was that for?_ he thought, trying to direct it at the Lion. Of the few-so-far sci-fi things to turn out to be possible, one of them was telepathy. It was really confusing and honestly kind of headache-inducing.

Blue sent another stern feeling in response, before he found an image of the red-shaded starmap from yesterday being shoved to the forefront of his brain, followed by a series of vague impressions that conveyed a somewhat-clear answer: they didn't have time for being petty.

As much as he didn't like it, Jordan had to admit that the Lion had a point. _Okay, fine,_ he thought, conceding. The Arusians still seemed like they were in the dark ages, but they made a decent first impression. _No guarantee on anyone that acts_ _like a Crog, though._

It was an acceptable response. Though Blue did add an afterthought that translated to her saying that she didn't know what a Crog was.

Right, they were billions of lightyears from home. Jordan swallowed, throat suddenly feeling tight. That probably wasn't the best thing to think about right now, either.

"Hey, uh—what do you think's gonna happen once the castle's all fixed up?" he asked, attempting to change the subject.

Molly looked at him for a few seconds, then off in the general direction of the building/ship. "I don't know. I mean—the only thing I can think of is that we might leave Arus."

That would make sense. And Blue seemed to agree with the idea.

 _Well…at least we're_ definitely _setting the record for furthest distance travelled from Earth._

* * *

"Could you at least tell me why we're doing this?" Koji asked, trying to keep any irritation from his voice. Coran had barely even gotten around to starting to explain how the castle's main turbine worked, when Shiro had run in and asked him to go with him to what was left of the Galran battleship. At least Stan was still there to hear how it was all put together.

 _"There might be a computer or two that survived the crash,"_ was all he said in response; it seemed like he was only paying half-attention. _That's probably why he asked me to bring mine,_ Koji thought, adjusting the strap for his tablet so it wouldn't slip off of his shoulder.

The Green and Black Lions were set near the edge of what looked like it might've once been a lake, if the half-rotted fish were any clue. When the battlecruiser had exploded the day before, parts of it had been flung in various directions, with the largest being toward the center of the lakebed. Koji winced when he made note of the fact that the ground was still mud in some places, and was quietly glad that Shiro had insisted on them getting their flight-suits for this. If the outfits were space-proof, they were _definitely_ waterproof.

The metal outside of it was scorched in most places, and the interior already had piles of loose soil scattered about, blown in by the wind. "Wait here a second," Shiro said, vanishing through a tear in the metal for a minute, before coming back at and making a _this-way_ gesture.

It looked like this part of the ship had been part of the bridge, with faintly-sparking wires sticking out here and there, and an upright setup that Shiro was looking over every inch of. "If that's supposed to be a computer, I don't think there's anything left to power it with," Koji pointed out, frowning.

"Nothing in the ship, maybe," Shiro muttered, eyeing his right arm. It lit up with a low humming sound moments later, and he cautiously laid his palm against the surface of the console. It worked like a charm—a red holographic screen appeared, flickering a bit for a few seconds before stabilizing.

"It can interface with computers too?" Koji muttered, staring for a few seconds.

"I guess so," Shiro said, a small, thin smile appearing briefly.

Koji looked at the screen again. If he had to guess, the winding angular symbols were Galran letters. "Uh…you can read at least _some_ of this, right?"

"…some of it."

"That's better than nothing. What are we looking for?"

Shiro didn't reply this time, instead moving to type a few things into the keyboard, which brought a list up. He frowned slightly, eyes narrowing, before he opened the first one up. If the short sigh was any indicator, the images showing the faces of various aliens wasn't what he was looking for.

Koji, on the other hand, couldn't hold back a startled exclamation. "I—I recognize some of those aliens," he said quickly, feeling _very_ nervous all of a sudden. "They're from Alwas."

"They are?" Shiro paled slightly, before starting to scroll down. Not too many of the faces stood out to Koji. If anything, he'd only seen them in passing. He _did_ recognize a few of them right away, though, with the first and foremost being the pilot from Weta, and that made him feel slightly ill. True, he was still a _little_ angry about that virus, but hadn't she said something about being _twelve_?

The Mong, Grooor, and a few Scrubs were in the list too. So was Toros, the pilot from Byrus, and both of the Nourasians. In fact, it looked like _all_ of the pilots were in that list, with only a few others being included.

(The only pilot _not_ on the list was Super-Racer.)

Then Shiro scrolled to the bottom of the list, and Koji was pretty sure his heart stopped for a few seconds. Shiro exclaimed something with vehemence that didn't translate, but _how_ he said it implied it was an ugly word in whatever language it was.

Rick and Don were certainly _not_ back on Earth, if they were in this list.

Then there was something like a sonic-boom from somewhere far above them, with Shiro looking up and squinting. Green's mental presence went tense at the same time, conveying the simple idea to _move_.

"H-Hold on, at least let me try to download this," he stuttered a little, scrambling to turn his tablet on.

"We don't have time!" Koji had to stifle a yelp when Shiro grabbed him by the collar of his uniform, the console having shorted out the moment his prosthetic had broken contact.

It was only after they'd cleared the ship's remnants that Koji saw just _how close_ the large flaming projectile was already, and had just barely comprehended the detail of there being very little chance of reaching the Lions in time when a blur of movement blocked everything out, right before everything seemed to explode.

Dust went flying everywhere, and his ears were left ringing by the sound of the impact of _whatever_ that thing had been made.

It took a few minutes for Koji to realize he was still very much in one piece, albeit having been thrown onto the ground. When he looked up, the first thing he saw was the Green Lion looking right back at him. To the side, the Black Lion had its head angled to look at something behind him and Shiro. _But we were at least still a dozen meters away…?_

"They saved us," Shiro breathed, sounding both surprised and thankful.

That was kind of obvious, in retrospect. Green sent a feeling that was something between amusement and a vague sort of protective affection, though there was unease under it.

What had been left of Sendak's ship had been all but obliterated by the force of the impact alone; the cause of it stood taller than even the Black Lion, but it wasn't as big as the other ship had been. "I don't know what that thing is," Shiro said tersely. "But I don't like the look of it."

Neither did Koji, for that matter. And as if on cue, the thing opened up: inside was some sort of biomechanical creature, _much_ smaller than the battlecruiser, but still slightly larger than the Lions, having six limbs and a diamond-shaped head featuring a jagged horn.

It fell from an upright position onto its legs, rendering it standing closer to the ground. Five horizontally-set eyes lit up a dull silver, focusing on them immediately.

Nope, definitely didn't look friendly—especially not when the _what-looked-like-laser-cannons_ set into its shoulders started lighting up.

Koji didn't need much more motivation to get into Green when Shiro shouted to. He had just reached the cockpit when everything had lurched sideways, which would've knocked him off his feet if he hadn't caught himself on a console. And the thing attacking them actually had _four_ laser-canons, with there being two more embedded into its tail.

From the higher altitude, he could see that the biomech looked _vaguely_ like an armadillo, with its armored shell, though the long spines covering its back were reminiscent of a porcupine. (It was familiar in a different way too, though Koji couldn't quite figure out _how_.)

Two glints of color in the sky signaled the arrival of the Red and Blue Lions, which both halted abruptly. _"What the heck_ is _that_ _thing?"_ Jordan sounded somewhere between baffled and disgusted.

 _"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure the Galra are behind it,"_ Shiro replied, the Black Lion swerving out of the way of another laser-blast.

 _"Say no more,"_ were Allura's terse words over the comm. _"I'll let Coran know to send Stan out."_

* * *

It took a few minutes for the Yellow Lion to come racing from the direction of the castle, though Eva almost hadn't seen him coming, if only because Red had to jump out of the way of a ramming charge from the… _whatever_ the thing attacking them was. It was deceptively fast-moving, despite its bulk.

It had been alternating between charging at the Lions when they were closer to the ground and shooting at them when they were too high, but that changed when it noticed the fifth Lion closing in. It retreated partly into its shell like a turtle would, spines bristling—and then a few of the spines were launched out of its back at them. They moved quick, but not quicker than Red.

Though they did grow back quicker than any of the Lions could fire. Not to mention any shots any of the Lions _could_ make were doing nothing against the shell-plating.

 _"I don't suppose anyone has any ideas on how to beat this thing?"_ Stan asked.

 _"It's bound to have a weak spot somewhere,"_ Shiro replied. _"Just keep looking!"_

 _Easier said than done,_ Eva thought, pulling Red's controls to the side again. Its build aside, the fact that both the color-scheme and the design of the laser-cannons were like that of Sendak's ship made it pretty clear who'd sent it to Arus.

And it playing turtle meant practically all of it was covered under its shell, except for its eyes… _its eyes_. "Jordan, try hitting its face!" she suggested.

He didn't reply, but she saw the Blue Lion turn sharply in the air to move toward the thing's front side. Eva knew that Jordan was a great shot, but would that still apply when he was also technically flying a ship?

The answer to that was _mostly_ : of the five rounds fired from the Blue Lion's tail, two of them hit home on an eye each, which elicited a hollow-sounding howl from the creature.

 _"Ha!"_ the gunner crowed. _"Didn't like that too much, did y—AAAGH!_ " He broke off in a startled scream right before the Blue Lion took the full brunt of all four of the thing's lasers, being sent flying a half-mile and gouging a trench into the plain, stopping at a series of gray-stone hills that were dangerously close to the Arusians' village.

For a few seconds, everything seemed to just _stop_ , with a cry catching in her throat. Shiro reacted first, with a hurried _"Jordan, are you alright?"_

 _"Yeah,"_ was the grunted response, and Eva heard rather than felt herself sigh. Below, the Blue Lion moved to start picking herself up, eyes flickering on and off. _"Spiky hits a lot harder than I thought it would."_ Then, voice sharpening in fear, he added _"And I really don't wanna find out how hard it_ actually _hits!"_

The monster had come out of its shell enough to move, and was now charging toward the still-downed Blue Lion, head lowered so that its horn would act as a spear.

 _No._ Eva grit her teeth, leaning onto the controls and shoving both sticks forward to push Red into a dive, closing the gap between the Lion and the monster, ignoring the others' startled shouts. Their crash on Alwas briefly came to mind, but this time Eva knew what she was doing.

Despite whatever mechanisms Red had to keep her from feeling the effects of the dive as much as she should've, she could feel a sort of pressure building up, not quite excitement, but more like anticipation, mixed with Red's own eagerness.

Below, as if in slow-motion, the creature noticed them, the spines on its back sticking up in preparation for an impact—but that didn't do any good in the end, once she'd hit the buttons on the handles.

A searingly-bright light filled the display, and Eva subconsciously yanked back on the handles, simultaneously hearing a screech that sounded more like tearing metal than anything alive.

 _"What the hell, Molly,"_ she heard Stan exclaim. _"How did you do that?"_

"Do what?" she asked, half to herself, before turning Red around to look back at the creature. She jolted a bit when she caught sight of it—the metal plating of its back had a molten crater in it now, a majority of the spines being misshapen.

 _"We'll figure it out later,"_ Shiro said, Eva silently thanking him for the subject-change. _"Now's our chance—hit it with everything we have!"_

The others all acted immediately, but Eva didn't. More like she _couldn't_ get herself to do anything.

Red's presence shifted away from aggression and more towards questioning when he'd noticed. "I…it's nothing," she deflected quietly, looking away from the display screens. The others had it handled, by the sound of it.

The Lion proceeded to give off the impression of squinting sideways at her, which she made a point of ignoring while bringing him to the ground.

The other four followed after a minute's worth of the creature not moving after falling over, and at Red's suggestion, she went out to stand by them. The creature was a lot bigger up close, the molten metal still steaming with a faint hissing sound.

"Is this gonna happen a lot?" Jordan asked, looking shaken but otherwise okay. "It's gonna really suck if it is."

"It's on the table," Shiro replied, grimacing. "We'll have to stay alert for anything else like this."

That earned a groan in response. "I had a feeling you were gonna say that." Jordan paused then, looking at Shiro and Koji. "What were you guys doing out here anyways? I thought you were both back at…" He trailed off, probably for the same reason that immediately made Eva nervous: Koji went pale-faced, and Shiro's expression shifted to something like a worried grimace.

"We were trying to find any information we could use," he said tersely. "Prisoner logs, things like that."

"And did you?" Stan asked.

"The only list we got to look at had people from Alwas on it," Koji said quietly, shaking his head a bit. "Almost all of the pilots, a few Scrubs, and—and Rick and Don Wei, too."

* * *

The first thing Stan had ended up doing was going to pick up Allura from the Arusians' village, if only because Shiro's tone hadn't left much room for protest. The Altean had been giving him a concerned sideways look almost the entire time, so something must've been showing on his face.

It should've been obvious, now that he was thinking about it—the Galra had held Shiro prisoner for almost a _year_ , after all. (Speaking of Shiro, he'd seemed… _distracted_ , somehow. He'd shrugged off any questions, though.)

"Coran finished with the turbine a few doboshes ago," Allura said once they'd left the Yellow Lion. "He took a shuttle to a nearby swap-moon to get some basic provisions. He should be back within the varga."

Stan paused. "How long is one of those, exactly?"

"Sixty doboshes."

"…and those?" he pressed, glancing over his shoulder.

She looked more bemused than annoyed, at least. "One-hundred ticks." _I'm gonna assume that translates to a hundred seconds._ The Lion seemed to mull it over a bit before agreeing.

At first, he was heading for the hangar, before a small part of him remembered that they were at an impasse when it came to work on the _Arrow_ without Coran around to find and then show them how to use the various mechanical equipment lying around.

So in retrospect, it made more sense that he saw Koji in one of the multiple lounge-rooms the castle-ship had, half-scowling at his tablet. Beside it on the table was another device, more than probably originating from somewhere in the building/ship. Rover was floating behind the couch, though that wasn't too surprising.

"What are you doing?" Stan asked, stepping over to look. The tablet's screen was currently displaying a wall of numbers that was probably coding.

"Trying to figure out how to get this to display Altean letters and numbers," Koji muttered, looking at the other device, which was displaying the same thing. "I mean, I know I should probably wait until Coran gets back, but I just—have to get my mind off of…" He made a vague hand gesture, looking uncomfortable.

Stan stifled a sigh. "I know what you mean." He hadn't _really_ known either Rick or Don Wei for that long, given that legitimate conversations had been very few and far with how the race's schedule had been—though his opinion of the latter had decidedly sunk slightly after the disaster that was their second race in the semifinals—but from what (very little) they knew about Shiro's year of being held prisoner by the Galra…

It wasn't a _calming_ thought, that was for sure.

"And you said it wasn't just them?"

"Yeah." Koji put his tablet down. "I didn't recognize everyone but—you remember that one pilot, from…Weta, I think?"

"How could I _not_?" Stan grumbled, remembering all too clearly having to dive behind the pit's circuit-box to avoid getting blasted by the _Arrow_ 's turret.

"She was in that list too. Stan, she wasn't even _twelve_. What are we dealing with here?"

Stan didn't answer, and the Yellow Lion's presence shifted uneasily at that line. "Did you see where Molly ran off to?" he asked, quietly hoping for a subject change. That was the other thing bugging him—she'd gone ashen before having bolted back to the Red Lion, which had taken off a little faster than was necessary.

"No," Koji replied, slumping back on the couch a bit. "I think Jordan went after her, though. I know Shiro went to go help those aliens we got off of Sendak's ship get ready to leave, though."

"What aliens?"

Koji paused. "Wait, no one told you or Molly. There were a few aliens being held captive on that ship, and me and Shiro got them out. They were in the infirmary until a little while ago."

"Think they could use some help?"

A pause. "Well—maybe. One way to find out."

All activity in the hangar stopped the second they were noticed, with Shiro reacting first. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"N-No, not really," Koji replied, the last two words being muttered in a breath. "We were just—"

"Wondering if there was anything we could help with," Stan finished.

"You've already done so much for us," one of the aliens said quietly. "We couldn't ask that of you." This was a new situation. Not entirely an unwelcome one, but on top of everything else…

 _Things were a lot simpler last week,_ Stan decided quietly.

One of the other aliens was watching both him and Koji now, attention having previously been riveted on Shiro, and when they spoke up Stan almost didn't hear them. "I'd heard stories of the Voltron Paladins when I was a child. It's heartening to see that the legends have truth to them."

Stan glanced sideways, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. Yep, things were _definitely_ simpler last week.

The ex-prisoners left in one of the shuttles shortly afterwards, and while Koji didn't say anything, the sideways look he was giving Stan conveyed enough.

Stan was pretty sure he didn't like their new situation at all whatsoever. Of course, this situation was also one of those ones that couldn't be run away from—but at the same time, they'd helped some people already. Yellow jumped on that last thought, metaphorically highlighting it.

Well, it wasn't the first time life had thrown a screwball at him, and at this rate it wouldn't be the last, either. He glanced at the _Arrow_ , before saying "At least we can get started on the new hyperdrive." Koji nodded, and Shiro glanced back over at them.

"Allura said something about the Arusians all coming up here tonight to see the castle before we leave. She was pretty clear about wanting all of us there."

Stan bit back a groan. _Figures. At least today shouldn't get any worse than that._

* * *

It took the better part of what felt like an hour to find Molly, and even then, it was only because the Red Lion had apparently told Blue where she was—which was to say that she was just outside of the castle, on the ruined bridge that faced the ocean.

Jordan stood there for a minute or two, wondering whether or not she'd be okay with talking, before deciding to just go for broke. "Hey, Molly? You doing okay?" he asked.

She went stiff, looking back over at him. "Jordan, I—I'm…okay," she said, muttering the last two words.

Jordan didn't buy it. "You sure? You looked like you were gonna be sick earlier…"

"I'm _fine_ ," she insisted sharply, turning to look (glare probably) at the ocean again. Jordan bit his tongue to keep a sigh back, and went to sit next to her.

"Hey, I'm—I'm worried about them too," he said. "But just sitting around and _worrying_ isn't gonna do them any good, y'know."

"You think I don't know that?" she shot back. "But it's just—they could be _anywhere_ out there, and you _saw_ how much space is between here and Earth, right? And—and that was just in one direction!" She threw her hands up a bit for emphasis, taking a shuddery breath.

"H-Hey, take it easy," he placated, one hand moving without much thought toward her shoulder, though he stopped it halfway. "Don't forget we've got a whole alien castle…ship thing now. A-And the Lions too."

Molly clenched a fist a little. "Yeah, six ancient alien warships. I'm _sure_ they're meant for search-and-rescue." The sarcasm was obvious, and Blue pulled something of a mental wince.

Jordan found himself not knowing what to say in response to that, too. Something else about the way she'd said that, on top of what she'd asked earlier while they were at the Arusians' village was shaping up into a finished puzzle he didn't like the look of.

"Look, I know this—it's bad, okay?" he started, looking toward the waves below. "We're millions of lightyears away from home, and got yanked into a warzone. There's nothing we can do about _that_ now, though, so we'll have to deal with it. I mean—we saved those aliens, right?"

Molly didn't say anything, though she was looking at him now. She looked lost, almost.

Different tactic, then. "We've got Stan and Koji here too," he pointed out. "A-And Shiro."

"Allura and Coran too," she put in quietly.

"Them too," he acquiesced. "Just…we're all in this."

"You're right," she said after a minute. "I just—I don't like it."

"I don't either," he admitted. "But we're in it together, right partner?"

Her mouth quirked into a half-smile. "Right." Blue purred her agreement, and Jordan didn't have too much doubt that the Red Lion was probably doing the same.

So what if it was a new situation? Whatever it was, they'd be ready for it.


	7. Storm the Castle

Fair warning, this is where the VLD-typical violence really starts applying, though I'm also taking a slightly-more-realistic spin on things.

* * *

 **Arc I: Race's End**

 **Storm the Castle**

He and Molly had spent the rest of the daylight hours poking around the outside of the castle, and a bit of exploration into the ruins set into the cliff below it. They hadn't been able to get very far, since most of the passageways looked like they'd collapsed a long time ago, and hadn't found more than a whole lot of dust.

They'd been about to head back in when Molly had spotted a few Arusians carting various lidded baskets and kegs up toward the castle on the pathway winding along the bluff, which made sense once Allura had tracked them down to let them know that they wouldn't have much of the night to themselves.

The contents of most of the baskets were mostly plants, and a few others had salted fish. That was also how Jordan found out that the castle-ship had three different kitchens. It kind of made sense, since it was a _castle_ , but three was a little ridiculous.

Coran had also seemed happy about something after coming from the direction of the one that was on the upper floors, holding a pitcher full of…something liquid and lilac in color. Whatever it was, it was probably part of the supplies he'd gotten from that swap-moon or whatever it was. Did they have grocery stores in space?

(Blue had done a mental shrug in response to the question.)

The main hall was far from silent right now, mostly because the Arusians had insisted on putting on some kind of performance as thanks for taking care of the "monster," though it was more than a little obvious that they didn't rehearse it much.

 _At least the costumes look okay,_ he thought, wincing when the one in the outfit resembling the Blue Lion tripped on his feet again.

"At least there were good intentions behind it," was the quiet comment from Koji when the reenactment was finished, and Allura was out of earshot. Stan mumbled some agreement.

"Hey, where'd Shiro go?" Molly asked, looking around. Jordan did the same—it wasn't hard at all to get a look around the whole room, given that the average height of the average Arusian was maybe three feet, so it was clear that Shiro wasn't in the main hall.

"I'll go check outside," Koji offered, turning to start toward the door before Jordan could even think about maybe saying anything. Then again, neither he or Stan looked too happy about having to stay in the main hall.

"Where do you think we're gonna go after this?" Stan asked, glancing toward the ceiling absently. "I mean—Allura said something about us leaving Arus tomorrow."

"Wait, she did?" Molly looked at him, then at Coran, who was standing a bit off to the side.

"It's still a matter for debate," he replied. "It'll be wherever the princess decides we're needed most." Up at the top of the steps, Jordan saw Allura give something to the Arusians' leader; he didn't really hear much, but it sounded like it was some sort of emergency communicator.

"I wonder what the odds of us ending up even further from home are," Stan grumbled, taking a cup of the lilac-colored stuff from a nearby table. He made a very obvious effort in swallowing whatever it was, before turning to face the Altean. "Coran, what _is_ this stuff?"

"Oh, just some nunvil! It was quite popular throughout the sector—"

" _It tastes like engine oil_."

 _…what?_ Molly looked something between confused and concerned at that statement, while Coran and two Arusians who'd overheard just looked confused. Stan seemed to realize what he'd said a few seconds later, glancing over his shoulder at Jordan and Molly, before quickly adding "Uh, d-don't ask how I know that!" and near-running toward the stairs.

"Does it really?" Coran asked finally, scratching his head with one hand before taking a sip from the cup. "Tastes fine to me." Then he glanced more to the side, where some Arusian kids were messing with one of the hovering dish-carrying things. "Oh dear. Excuse me one moment!"

"Okay then," Jordan muttered, confused.

"Think Koji knows the story behind that?" Molly asked.

"Maybe."

Molly's attention wandered to the pitcher on the table. "Something can't taste _that_ bad, can it?"

Jordan shrugged. "One way to find out."

 _Of all the things that could've happened,_ Allura found herself thinking as she observed the gathering from the balcony, _I didn't think a pre-contact civilization would've been playing host for us for so long._

That she, the Lions, and the paladins all lined up with various mythological figures in the Arusians' culture was both a blessing and a curse: the former because it made talking to them _leagues_ easier than it could've been, and the latter because…well, breaking to them that who they perceived as deities were just as mortal as they were took almost a varga.

It could've been worse, though, and the mice agreed on that.

There was also the matter on how the Arusians even _knew_ about the Lions, though Allura had a suspicion that the Black Lion may have had something to do with it. (The Lion herself had continuously been pointedly ignoring any questions, however.)

And speaking of Lions…they'd made some improvement, as shown by the events of earlier in the day. That Molly had been able to tap into the Red Lion's magma-beam was a surprising step forward, given that they still hadn't managed to form Voltron—though at the same time, she and the Red Lion really did seem to be a perfect match for each other, even with what little Allura had been able to see of Molly so far.

There was a slightly-reproachful squeak from Chuchule, and Allura jumped slightly before sighing. "I know, I know, I can't rush them. I'm just concerned for…everything, I guess." Platt squeaked questioningly, and she paused. "Let's—keep that a secret, okay?" The four mice exchanged looks before nodding their heads.

The one side-effect of sharing a cryopod with them for nearly ten-thousand decaphoebs was something Allura was still adjusting to. Below, she saw both Molly and Jordan tentatively try the nunvil that Coran had gotten from the swap-moon, only to spit it out ticks later, both of them looking _thoroughly_ disgusted.

Another squeak piqued her curiosity. "Who else has secrets?" The smallest mouse went first, acting out an observation of who Allura quickly understood to have been Jordan. "That doesn't surprise me," she admitted; he'd seemed pleased with his bayard's initial form, so having gone all-out in a self-imposed practice session the quintant before with it made sense.

Chuchule went next, and her observation was more amusing than anything. "I thought they'd seemed fond of it," Allura said, stifling a laugh. She hadn't seen much of the ship that the new paladins had been making use of in the Great Race, which she recalled Molly once referring to as the _Arrow_ , but Stan and Koji speaking of it as if it were a child was unexpectedly adorable.

Then Plachu made his addition to the list, and for a few moments, Allura had to make sure she didn't misunderstand what the mouse had not-quite-said.

"What do you mean, that's not actually her name?"

If there was one thing that stood out to Shiro among everything else, it was the _air_. Even at nighttime, he was pretty sure that from the bluff, he could see for miles in any direction. And that was saying nothing about the sheer amount of stars he could see in the sky above them, with Arus having no moon to hide anything. (The lack of a moon was probably why the ocean was so calm, too.)

It felt like a storm was brewing, even though no clouds were in sight.

Another glance around gave him some pause; he hadn't noticed that Koji had come outside until just now. He was standing more off to the side, looking out toward the plain where the fallen monster was, though he tensed when Shiro came close enough to be heard coming.

"Is it getting crowded in there?" Shiro asked.

Koji glanced over his shoulder at him before replying, "Sort of." Shiro quirked one brow slightly, though the technician had gone back to staring out towards where the monster was. "I—I didn't really notice it before, but that thing looks familiar."

"Familiar how?"

"Familiar like—one of the pilots from Alwas. It took me a bit to remember because they weren't in the list either, and I only saw them once, but it kind of looked like the pilot from Hortlum."

Something pricked in the back of Shiro's head—he recognized something about that from somewhere, in a sickening sort of way, but before he could even think about saying anything about it, he heard a rustle from one of the bushes to the side. He stared at it for almost a minute, but nothing else moved. _Probably just an animal_.

The unfortunate thing about the bridge's console was that, like everything else in the ship, it was coded to display everything in Altean, which Stan couldn't even _begin_ to make heads or tails of. Which meant it was just a game of pressing random buttons to see what happened and hope nothing broke.

At least there were labels here.

So far, he'd managed to turn the exterior display panels on, figured out how to adjust the settings of the bridge's lighting, and bring up the settings for what Yellow had quickly informed him was the castle's translator, which was something he shouldn't mess with.

Then there was the security cameras. Stan hadn't really thought about just _how many_ security cameras this place would have until now.

He half-glared at the console again, until Yellow pulled his attention to a key on the upper-right end of it. Upon being pressed, the lights dimmed before the starmap appeared.

At the same time, the door chimed before opening to let Coran in, who paused mid-step. "Well you seem to be figuring out things pretty well," he commented. "I have to admit, I thought you would've been at the shuttle hangar."

Stan shrugged a bit before looking at the map again. "Wasn't really trying to go anywhere specific." That much was true; he hadn't really been aiming for the bridge until he'd recognized where he was in the castle. "Where's Earth on this again?"

"Right over here." The Altean stepped over to the far right side of the room, pointing up at a small spiral shape. "It's on the upper-left corner as the map is right now."

Aside from what Stan vaguely recognized as being whatever equated to _Earth_ in Altean, there was also a string of symbols that the Yellow Lion clarified to be numbers. A distance measurement.

A fun little reminder of just _how small_ they all were compared to the whole universe.

Coran looked back at him, head tilting to one side slightly, before a knowing look crossed his face. "Right, I remember Shiro saying something about your kind being relatively new to interstellar travel. It's a bit of a shock, I won't deny that."

"I didn't know a number could _get_ that long," Stan admitted, making a vague hand gesture at the starmap. "I knew we'd be gone for a—a few months maybe, but now I just…I don't know."

"Yes, it'll likely be quite a while, given the state of things." Coran hummed thoughtfully before adding, "But I'm sure a chance to send a message home will come up eventually."

There was only one person back on Earth worth contacting for him and Koji, and while Jordan had mentioned his family both vaguely and only in passing, Molly had never said anything about her relatives.

 _Maybe we should try talking to those two a bit more,_ he thought, gaze momentarily falling on a specific portion of the starmap. "Hang on a sec. How do you even know about the Great Race if…" _If Alwas and Ōban are so far away from here?_

He found himself unable to finish the sentence, but Coran seemed to pick up on where he was heading with it, saying "I once visited Alwas with the original Paladins, actually."

"Really?" Stan turned his full attention onto Coran now, for two reasons—one being the statement in itself, which explained a bit as to how he knew some things about the Avatar, and the other being that he'd mentioned the previous Lion pilots.

Aside from him mentioning a name that might've been one of them (Trigel?) the day before, neither he or Allura had said anything specific.

Coran nodded, looking distant. "We were there during the Pre-Selections, actually." He stopped, laughing almost nervously while straightening his jacket collar, before adding, "Well, for the Race before this current one, anyways."

And now Stan was feeling guilty for asking. He mumbled an apology, which gave Coran pause. "No, no, it's—it's quite alright," the Altean said, quashing the weariness that had crept into his tone. "You've all been pulled into this situation without any consent, and you'll have to learn more about it at some point."

 _At some point_ more than likely meant _not yet_. Yellow was pensive in the back of his head, bordering melancholy, but he was suddenly at attention as Stan was following Coran off the bridge; Stan found his attention being pulled to Rover hovering towards the crystal on the ceiling that powered the castle.

Rover, which currently seemed only capable of following Koji everywhere, and Koji was nowhere in sight.

Which meant _that wasn't Rover_ —proven when the highlights of the drone started flashing red with a high-pitched beeping sound.

Shiro had just suggested to Koji that they head back inside when the ground underfoot had bucked violently to trip both of them, coupled with an explosion that undoubtedly came from somewhere inside the castle. There was a grace period of three seconds before the Arusians inside all stampeded out in a panic. The interior lights of the castle faded shortly after, as did the cyan highlights on the outside.

At the same time, a sudden sort of uneasy dread had crept over Shiro—an undeniable _something-is-very-wrong_ sort of feeling.

"Wh-What just happened?!" Koji asked shakily, getting to his feet.

"I don't know, but it definitely wasn't anything good," Shiro replied, running back inside as soon as he was able to. The dust that had been shaken loose by the blast coated everything in the main hall, Allura, Molly, and Jordan included. He caught the end of the princess saying something to them, key words being "something wrong with the crystal."

Shiro didn't see Stan anywhere. Or Coran, for that matter, and Allura tensed when he asked where they were, not answering and instead turning to run up the stairs. Shiro couldn't make out the distinguishing marks for each hall, but the princess had grown up here.

The bridge looked as though a bomb had gone off in it—and given what they'd heard, that had probably happened. Thick clouds of dust were obscuring most of the room, and it didn't help that the crystal wasn't there to give off light.

Coran was slowly picking himself up, holding a hand to his head. He looked mostly unharmed, at the most having some singed hair and a scratch or two on his face.

The same couldn't be said for Stan, however; there was a wordless sound of panic from Koji, which preceded him scrambling over to the mechanic, Shiro following closely.

Part of the armor's back had been shredded, with the jetpack being gone altogether and the undersuit having been burnt through in places. The visible skin was specked with crystal shards, burns, and small streaks of blood. He wasn't moving, and while Shiro found a pulse, it was fainter than what would have been reassuring.

"We need to get him to the infirmary," he summed up aloud, glancing back at the others. Molly and Jordan looked equally horrified, and Coran's mouth was drawn to a thin line.

"That won't do any good right now," Allura said grimly. "Without a crystal, the castle has no power." Her brow furrowed slightly before she added "What I don't understand is _how_ this happened."

"Lion Warriors!" The Arusian king appeared through the dust, skidding to a halt in front of them with his eyes wide in fearful panic. "Our village is under attack!"

 _There's no way this isn't connected._ "Princess, can we get to the Lions?" Shiro asked.

She shook her head, grimacing. "Their hangars are sealed. We'd have to go on foot."

"I remember there being a Balmera not too far from here," Coran spoke up. "But we'd have to get a shuttle outside somehow—"

"Stan and I were working on one a little earlier," Koji said faintly, face pale. "I—we—we left the bay doors open because it was getting stuffy in there."

The Altean threw a questioning glance at the technician, but didn't ask. "That settles it, then. Jordan, I'll need you to come with me."

Jordan started a bit. "Wait, what?"

"I'll need someone to help me move the crystal when we find it."

Jordan opened his mouth to protest, but Shiro cut him off. "We'll handle things back here," he said, before glancing at Koji. "If whatever you two did to the shuttle is functional, you'll have to explain it to them. It might come in handy."

"But I…"

"I'll keep an eye on Stan. Don't worry."

Koji nodded after a few seconds of hesitation, getting up to follow the other two out. "I'll go help the Arusians," Allura said. "I brought this on them."

"Princess, I'm sure you had nothing to do with this," Shiro started. She glared at him, though he didn't pause. "I won't stop you from going out to help them, but you shouldn't go alone."

The stalemate lasted all of a second before she sighed. "You have a point. Molly, you'll come with me."

Molly jolted in place, seeming to realize she was being addressed directly now, and stuttered a bit. "B-But what about—?!"

"I'm staying here," Shiro repeated calmly. "Go with Allura, and _be careful_ out there. Make sure you have your bayard, and get suited up—who knows what we're up against now."

Scratch that, he had a nagging idea on what they were up against, and he had a feeling Allura did as well.

"We won't need a wormhole to get there, thankfully," Coran was saying, tapping the shuttle's monitor. "But it'll take about a varga to get there, and another to get back."

 _So an hour._ Stan had mentioned something about that earlier, though all that recollection did was make him feel momentarily nauseous again. He hadn't seen Rick right after the _Arrow I_ had exploded, so that was his first time seeing an actual injury of any sort.

Ugly coincidence that both then and now involved something exploding.

"So what exactly were you two doing to this ship, anyways?" Coran asked, looking sideways at Koji.

Koji jumped a bit, coughing forcibly before replying, "W-We were trying to get a prototype for the _Arrow_ 's new hyperdrive set up." He paused, taking a shaky breath. "We thought…well, that we could try putting it on one of these first, since the _Arrow_ can't really do much right now."

"A hyper—" Coran sputtered a bit. "These ships aren't meant to go that fast! The hull could break apart if that was engaged in flight!"

"Don't use it, then," was the muttered answer.

Jordan bit his lip—to say that Koji looked close to completely losing it would be an understatement. "H-Hey, I'm sure this'll all work out," he tried reassuring. "Stan's a tough guy."

Coran froze, glancing at Jordan for a second, and then back. "We'll be quick about this, don't worry." No response came, until he added, "You'd best go find Shiro," which was to simply turn to quickly start back down the hall, though he stopped abruptly when both Molly and Allura walked by, the latter of whom looked somewhere between puzzled and exasperated.

"We'll get there faster if we use this," Molly said, presumably in response to a question before starting the rocket-seat. She quickly glanced over at Jordan, a look of grim determination in her eyes. Jordan nodded a bit, giving a small thumbs-up. _Good luck, partner._

The shuttle's covering materialized, and the ship jolted a bit as it shot upwards. Blue sent some reassurance as they left the atmosphere, and Jordan took advantage of it to ask a question: _What is a Balmera, anyways?_

The wordless response was a short, simple sensation that he vaguely translated as _Ask Coran._

He sighed before doing as such, repeating the words he'd proffered to his Lion out loud. "Glad you asked," was the response that sounded forcibly cheery. "They're ancient animals—petrified, but still very much alive!"

"How big are they?"

"Big enough to be mistaken for a small planet."

"A small—?!" Jordan shut his mouth abruptly, processing that information. _Well that might just be the weirdest thing I'll ever see…_

In retrospect, Eva was grateful that she hadn't had the chance to put her rocket-seat back into the _Arrow_ , otherwise it would've taken a lot longer to get out to the Arusian village—and she definitely wouldn't have made it there without Allura giving directions on which pathways to go through the forest.

Allura had also been keeping a _very_ tight grip on her the whole time, especially on the tight turns around some thickets.

While the buildings in the village were made out of dried clay, they weren't holding up very well, and a few taller structures that had been built from wood had since toppled over. Allura acted first, jumping off even before the rocket-seat had stopped, asking "Is everyone alright?"

The Arusians that had been huddled at the edge of the bluff overlooking the village all looked okay for the most part, if frightened. One of them took a small step forward, replying "Yes, but Ranet is nowhere to be found!"

Which meant he or she was probably still down there. Eva looked over the village, but the smoke was hiding everything from view, just like when—

 _No,_ she told herself firmly, shaking her head. _Stay focused._ "I'll go down there and look," she said aloud, carefully edging along a narrow path down the cliffside.

"Molly, be careful!" Allura warned. "We have no idea what's down there!"

 _Like I don't know that already._ Her helmet sealed itself when she got closer to the smoke, reaching the ground in two minutes. Eva didn't see any sign of there being anyone or anything, until she'd turned away from the third intact building she'd checked.

She almost jumped, biting back a curse when she saw a Galra sentry looking right at her—but it didn't do anything. In fact, _none_ of them were doing anything except standing there, and it was either just her, or some of them were…missing pieces…

 _"Molly, Ranet just came up the path,"_ Allura said. _"You can—"_

"There's just a bunch of broken robots down here!" Eva interrupted, a chilling possibility having struck her. "This was just a distraction!"

 _"Then we have to get back to the castle!"  
_ "Yeah, no kidding!"

It probably wasn't really the best course of action—Shiro strongly regretted not having paid closer attention during the first-aid lessons at the Garrison—but it wouldn't have been possible to keep watch on Stan and on the castle's entrance at the same time from the then-useless bridge.

The good news was that, at having reached the bridge and setting him on one of the alcoves in the wall, Stan seemed to be starting to wake up a bit.

The bad news was that Shiro's suspicion on the cause of all of this was proven very horribly _correct_.

"I see you've spent some time with the Druids," Sendak remarked when they'd reached a stalemate in the battle that had ensued, smirking. "They do love to experiment. It's a shame you hadn't been around long enough to get the latest model."

Shiro grit his teeth hard enough to make his jaw ache, but before he could do anything, he abruptly found himself shooting backwards—the Galran commander was standing in place still, but the plasmatic cable connecting his disproportionately-large prosthetic was stretching between him and the metal arm itself, which was still firmly connected to Shiro's chest until his feet caught on the floor, sending him rolling roughly across the ground and leaving spots of darkness flickering in his vision.

He got to his feet just in time to block Sendak's next assault. "You're not taking this castle!" he snarled, parrying blow after blow before ducking on pure instinct (that he hadn't known was there) and brought his own Galran prosthetic up and leaving it hovering millimeters away from the commander's throat. He'd matched the move, though, the claws of his prosthetic being too close to Shiro's neck for his comfort.

The stalemate lasted for what felt like hours before he heard a dull thud, followed by a sharp "Stop, or your _friend_ here will pay for your actions."

Shiro tensed, looking back over his shoulder—in the chaos he'd nearly forgotten about Stan, but _where had that other Galra come from_ —

Something slammed into the side of his head, and everything went dark.

Getting back to the castle was easier than getting to the village, since all they had to do was backtrack, but the fact that Red had started bristling in her mind when they were halfway there was a big red flag for Eva.

Her grip on the rocket-seat's handles tightened when she saw the castle's highlights glow purple, when they were three-quarters of the way there—and then she had to slam on the brakes to keep them from crashing into the particle-barrier that came up around the castle.

"Is there another way inside from out here?" she asked,

"No," Allura replied through grit teeth. "And if the castle has power, that means they have a crystal, and they'll be able to fly the ship."

"What about Shiro and Koji? They stayed here, didn't they?"

The Altean didn't reply, instead putting one hand up to an earring in response. "Shiro? Koji? If either of you can hear me, please respond!"

For a few long seconds, there was no response. Then: _"Allura?"_ It was quiet, with a stressed undertone to it, but the voice was recognizable.

"Koji, what's going on in there? What happened?"

He stammered a bit before saying, _"S-Sendak happened. There's someone else with him, a-and they have a few sentries, and they brought a crystal in with them."_

"What about Shiro?" Allura asked, after having said something in a low undertone that hadn't translated.

There was a hitched intake of breath. _"Shiro got knocked out. I'm—I'm not sure where they are in the castle right now, but if I had to guess, they're on the bridge. Th-They have Stan too."_

Eva hissed in a breath. This wasn't good. It _really wasn't_ good, and while she was slightly relieved that someone having walked away from the battleship crashing…that it had led to _this_ threw a wrench into it. (She wasn't sure she liked that confusing mess very much.)

"Did they see you at all?" Allura asked.

 _"I-I don't think so."_ Koji sounded faint.

"Good," the princess said, face set into a look of determination. "That means you can keep them from taking off."

 _"You have to get to the control panel and disconnect the power to the main turbine. The system will have to be reset manually, which might give us enough time to figure out how to stop them."_ Might. That wasn't a very reassuring word here.

Koji nervously looked around the corner before starting down the violet-lit hall. He knew where the main turbine was, at least, and the Green Lion was purring wordless reassurances. This wasn't the first time she'd seen something like this.

Then she mentally side-eyed him with a question. "I'm—I'm fine," he said. Fine was being used liberally right there. Physically, except for the fact that he couldn't seem to catch his breath, he was okay. In terms of either mental or emotional state, well, not so much.

The last time he'd seen Stan get hurt was when they'd accidentally provoked a stray dog when they were kids—Koji had been okay, if only because Stan had kept it distracted. He'd needed to get more than a few stitches in both shoulders because of that.

Koji knew next to nothing about medical things, but he was pretty sure an explosion was more harmful than anything a dog could do by a long shot.

He was fine, but Stan wasn't. Neither was Shiro.

And they wouldn't be fine unless he somehow managed to do what Allura had said.

The stairs weren't anywhere near where he had to go, but one of the various elevators was. The problem with that plan was actually using an elevator would be equivalent to a neon sign that he was there—but the doors to the shaft were surprisingly easy to get open, and the shaft itself was terraced.

How the Lion knew that, Koji decided was a question better left for later. What mattered was that he did have a way to get to the right floor.

Which was still an elevator shaft that he couldn't see the bottom of.

After waiting for Rover to hover through the doorway, he carefully jumped down (with assistance from the jetpack) to the first terrace. He almost overbalanced himself on the third jump, though Rover proved useful in that situation by floating close enough to grab onto.

 _So maybe its AI isn't that simple,_ he'd thought after recovering from the near-fall.

He'd only stopped for a few seconds before getting back up, though. He didn't have time to waste right now.

What he first noticed about the main engine room was that the space encircled by the catwalk, which had been vacant earlier, now featured a bluish-white orb of plasma that was giving off both heat and a steady crackling sound. If anything, that was the turbine itself. "Okay, I—I made it to the room," he said, raising his voice a bit to hopefully be heard over the background noise. "Now what?"

 _"Open the hatch beneath the control panel,"_ Allura replied. _"That's where the central computer is."_ He nodded a bit, crouching to open the panel, and promptly froze up when he saw a glaringly-obvious problem. _"Then, enter the following sequence—"_

"W-Wait a second, it's all in Altean! Allura, which one is it?" No response came, though if there was, the sound from the turbine would've drowned it out. Koji had at least been around to hear Coran describing the launch sequence, and that was definitely happening now.

(He didn't want to know what would happen if he wasn't able to stop this.)

Nothing in the control box looked like it was even part of a computer, aside from the various cylindrical glass tubes that looked like they were carrying an electrical current…and if there was one thing that was probably universal with computers, is was that a power surge would force a safety shutdown.

The bayard was in his hand seconds later, doing as it was programmed to in picking up on which direction his thoughts were heading, the green energy-blade crackling a bit. Koji took a shaky breath, thinking _This is a really stupid idea,_ before jabbing at the closest solid part of the control panel.

The next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back some ways away from the console, and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from screaming because right now it felt like his arm was on fire.

The good news was that the sound from the turbine had subsided almost immediately, which meant his stupid idea had worked.

A sense of urgency came over from Green: _get out of there_. Coinciding with that was Allura's voice over the comm. "Koji, were you able to disable the turbine?"

"Yeah," he got out, voice hitching a bit as he stood up, wobbling a bit. A good way to sum up his current thoughts would be _ow_. "I—I think I got it to turn off, actually."

The princess sounded flabbergasted. _"But how did you—oh, never mind that. There isn't much time before they're able to get it up and running again, so you'll have to move fast. You need to shut off the particle barrier so Molly and I can get into the castle."_

Jordan noticed it abruptly, after about ten minutes: Blue's presence, which he'd somehow grown accustomed to even though it had only been a few days, was _a lot_ fainter. Like whatever alien-magic thing that linked them was an elastic band being stretched thin.

The same went for the others. It was weird— _really weird_ , actually—but somehow he'd grown used to the mental white-noise that they put out. Of course, him being used to it only made its fainter-than-usualness more noticeable. (And Molly was actually _not_ noticeable at all now.)

He looked sideways, watching a few stars go by. Distant as it all was, the underlying feeling of there being _something wrong_ hadn't gone away. "Can't this thing go any faster?"

"No, at least not safely." Coran scowled a little at the dashboard as he spoke, specifically at one button that was off to the side. Jordan couldn't help but feel a little impressed with Stan and Koji, if they'd figured out an alien ship enough to add a new feature within a day.

Something ahead caught his eye then, and he looked forward. "Is that the Balmera thing?"

"It is," Coran confirmed, visually brightening a bit. "You're in for a real treat," he added when the shuttle started diving into the atmosphere, tone reminiscent. "My grandfather often took me out to see these majestic creatures while he was building the castle. The sparkling surface of a Balmera is one of…of the…oh _no_."

His voice trailed into a horrified whisper once the shuttle passed the last of the sulfur-colored clouds, revealing the vast expanse of dark-colored structures and large machinery on the surface, all of which having luminescent purple trims on them.

Coran gave a short, nervous laugh. "Alright, well, we'll just have to be a bit more—"

 _"Hailing unidentified craft,"_ a robotic voice intoned over the radio, coinciding with a shadow falling over the shuttle. _"State your ship ID, entry code, and landing destination."_

"Now what?" Jordan hissed. Somehow he wasn't surprised by things turning south like this, given everything that had happened _just today_ already.

He also realized abruptly that he'd never really noticed just how _big_ the Galra fighters were.

"I'll handle this," Coran whispered in response, before saying into the comm, "We don't really need to land—we're just having a look at the Balmera."

 _"Unidentified craft, land immediately and prepare to be boarded."_

Coran grimaced before replying, "Okay, see you down below." Then there was a low "Hang on," before Jordan could even think about saying anything—and the next thing he knew, the shuttle shot forward hard and fast enough to press him back against the seat a bit.

The ship swerved left and right in order to avoid laser shots from the Galra fighter before pitching downwards into a gaping hole in the surface that must've been _at least_ three-hundred feet in diameter, if not larger than that. _And here I thought Molly was a crazy pilot!_

A minute passed, and then another, before Jordan asked "How deep does this thing go?!"

"You know, I'm actually not— _whoa_!"

Coran shoved the handles to the side, but not fast enough—the side of the shuttle clipped what looked like a metal beam, sending it into a tailspin for a few long moments before it hit something solid, skidding a few feet to one side. Jordan hissed out a breath, rubbing the back of his head, before looking around; the cockpit's covering had faded when the shuttle had powered off, the ship itself having come to a stop right next to a tunnel.

And it was either just him, or he could see what little light there was reflecting off of two pairs of eyes in the aforementioned tunnel. His bayard was immediately in his hand when he saw both of them move, and they both paused momentarily before stepping forward.

Both were thickset in build, with stone-like skin and long, muscular arms. Instead of hair, they had rigid carapaces that looked almost like helmets, with small horns. Both wore basic smocks, their two-toed feet bare.

"You are not Galra," the one on the right said finally, sounding surprised.

"And neither are you," Jordan replied guardedly. He didn't know what they were, actually—and he was glad that the earpiece translator wasn't needed anymore, and that the shuttles had their own built-in translator things; he didn't know how any of that worked, and frankly, he didn't care right now.

The Balmeran tilted her head to one side slightly before saying "I am Shay." Gesturing to the one next to her, she added, "This one is my brother, Rax."

"Coran, at your service." The Altean bowed a bit. "And this here is Jordan."

"Why have you come here?" Rax asked harshly, scowling.

"Looking for some crystal," Jordan retorted, scowling back at him. "The sooner we find it, the sooner we're gone."

"You will not find any crystals here. Galra have already taken all Balmera has to give, and then they have taken more."

Jordan glared at him. He was _seriously_ not in the mood to deal with this guy's attitude, but before he could say anything else, Shay whispered "Rax, these strangers are enemy to the Galra. If we help them—"

"We will only anger the Galra ourselves if we do. We owe these skylings _nothing_ , Shay. _Exeunt_."

A red glow from above earned a glance up, the source of which being a Galra fighter descending through the tunnel, a red-hued searchlight slowly moving back and forth. To the side, Coran was thin-lipped and sweating a little.

"Rax, we are not Galra," Shay said determinedly. "We do not turn away those in need of help."

Rax's response was something between a sigh and a groan, with a muttered "Vex," preceding them both running forward and grabbing one end of the shuttle, lifting it easily and carrying it over to the tunnel.

 _Or maybe this_ could _end okay._

It felt like vargas had gone by, when in reality Allura knew it was _probably_ only one and a quarter. She had no way of knowing, though. Molly stopped in her pacing when Koji was heard over the comm again: _"Okay, I'm at the generator room now. Where's the switch?"_

"It should be on the right-hand side."

 _"Got it…oh. Oh no."_ His voice dropped into a terrified whisper, right before the unmistakable sound of laser blasts was heard, and Allura tensed involuntarily.

At the same time, Molly asked "Koji, what's going on?"

No response came for a few too-long moments, until there was a shaky exhalation. It was followed by a rushed, panicked-sounding _"Please tell me there's another way to turn it off!"_

"I'm afraid there isn't," Allura replied. "Why?" Static was all that was heard, and she hissed out a breath. No doubt the particle barrier was causing interference.

A furious exclamation followed by a dull thud; Molly had kicked the barrier, only to have to hop on the other leg a few times while hissing out a breath. "Th-There has to be _something_ we can do!" she cried, looking back at Allura briefly.

"There isn't," Allura replied grimly. Then an idea struck her. "Wait a tick—the mice!"

"The mice?" Molly repeated, confounded. "What can they do?"

Allura didn't reply, instead focusing on the four dozing consciousnesses at the edge of her own awareness. _Friends, I need your help._ They snapped to attention in response. _The particle barrier must be shut down from inside the castle. Please hurry._ Nervous comprehension came from them, as did a confirmation, and Allura sighed. It was up to them now. _I hope Koji is alright…_

"You can't— _talk_ to them, can you?" The question itself was quiet, and while Molly's expression was stoic, her posture told a different story.

Remembering what Plachu had told her earlier, Allura replied with "It's a little more complicated than simply talking, but…yes, I can."

The Red Paladin inhaled sharply, muttering "Oh." She'd tensed even more, if only for a tick, but it was enough to give Allura some pause. _I suppose there's no point in hiding it from her, especially if it's going to result in a problem._

With that thought, Allura smiled before saying, "If it's anything, I think Eva is a lovely name."

The reaction was immediate: she froze, stammering a few attempted denials, though they quickly receded into silence. Then came a faint "Please don't tell anyone."

"That's your decision to make, not mine." A relieved sigh came in response, and Allura pursed her lips slightly before saying, "Though I'll admit that I'm curious as to _why_ you're going by a different name."

The Red Paladin went rigid again, eyes briefly flicking over to Allura while seemingly about to say something, but she never did.

Instead she remained quiet, seeming uncertain in a distant sort of way, clenching one fist slightly when she looked back toward the barrier.

This was officially _the worst_ day of his life so far, and that was taking every single thing that Koji could remember into account.

If Rover's rudimentary AI hadn't been sophisticated enough to let the drone have enough free range of decision-making to give a simple warning, he probably wouldn't be breathing right now—and he wouldn't be doing Stan or Shiro or _anyone_ any good at all if he got himself killed.

The good news about that near-death incident was that the following adrenaline rush was enough for him to put enough space between him and the sentries, in case one or two of them came after him.

The other piece of good news was that the castle's ventilation system—entered at Green's suggestion—was just roomy enough for him to crawl through. Along with that was the discovery that the dagger his bayard turned into could also double as a grappling hook, with the blade splitting into three parts and there being a thin cable between the hilt and the base of the blade.

He wasn't sure how that worked, but he wasn't going to wonder how it worked right now. It was bad enough that he'd had to spend a few minutes trying to get his breathing back to a normal pace.

The path Green directed him to led out to the training deck, currently lit in the same eerie purple as the rest of the building/ship.

He'd had to cut the panel open with his bayard, since it wasn't meant to be opened from the inside of the vent, but given that it was a clean cut, it probably wouldn't be _too_ hard to fix.

Koji stifled a sigh. _Well, they probably won't be expecting that,_ he thought, trying to reassure himself.

Sendak knew he was in here, since those sentries had seen him. All five sentries had been there, too, which honestly was probably a little overkill for just guarding the barrier's generator. So it really shouldn't have taken him by surprise when one of the doors opened to show two of them there, both armed.

What happened after that was more of a blur than anything else; he distinctly remembered having frozen up, and then Green's presence—usually confined to a corner of his awareness—surged forward with a desperation that was hard and fast enough to snap him back to attention, leaving him feeling almost as though he'd been caught in a patch of brambles, even though he was running while tapping keys on a holoscreen that looked like it was linked to the console up on the observation deck.

When Green figuratively retreated, it was right after he'd turned around to see that one of the sentries was running into the invisible walls of the maze, while the other had been split in half when the walls had come online right on top of it.

For some bizarre reason, he had to fight back the urge to laugh at it, though that was probably the stress starting to get to him.

It was as he was carefully making his way down the ladder of the maintenance entrance that the remorseful feeling changed into apprehension, and that he could hear a voice that he didn't recognize. Koji slowly looked over his shoulder, and promptly almost lost his grip on the ladder rungs.

There had been another Galra with Sendak. He'd _seen_ the other Galra, but hadn't considered that he might get sent to go investigate what happened to the turbine.

Forget breathing, at this point he'd be lucky to _not pass out_. Koji still couldn't feel his arm, and it was either just him or his vision was starting to get fuzzy at the edges.

He couldn't give up now, though. He had to distract them long enough for Jordan and Coran to get back with a new crystal so they could help Stan.

The display blinked red, coinciding with an alarm going off; the turbine flared almost blindingly seconds later, a loud crackling sound being heard, which was enough of a warning. For a few seconds, he panicked—there was no way he'd get back up to the top of the ladder in time, and even then, there was no telling how far the surge would reach.

Then Rover beeped twice from behind him, and it was with some urging from Green that he risked it and grabbed onto the drone.

The good news was that he didn't even feel any static. The bad news was that Rover couldn't hover _nearly_ well enough to keep them both in the air, and they both fell very quickly down to the catwalk.

For a few seconds, the Galra stared at him, before growling "So _you're_ the one causing all of this trouble?" while stumbling to his feet. "You're hardly even a runt!"

Definitely an insult, though honestly it wasn't the worst thing he'd heard. Molly or Jordan probably would've made a snarky comeback there, but Koji wasn't anything like either of them at all. It didn't help that the Galra was _at least_ six feet tall, and the sneer that crossed his face seconds later also did not help. "Scared, are you?"

"No."

The sneer became more noticeable (Koji was shaking to the point of almost dropping his bayard, that was a _more-than-obvious_ _lie_ ) before the Galra chuckled, saying, "Well, let me tell you something. I'm a soldier of the Galra Empire. Nothing stops me but triumph or _death_."

He lunged forward on the last word, a magenta blade springing from the dark object that he'd had in his hand, and it was only through hardwired self-preservation instinct that Koji hadn't even known about before then that he'd ducked to the side in time and ran ahead.

There wasn't much he could do here except _run_ , but chances were that the Galra was a lot faster than he was. That meant running might not be the best option, and it was with that thought that he turned and swung the bayard, the blade shooting out—but of course, that didn't work either, because the next he knew he'd been tripped up by the translucent green rope, the Galra having actually _grabbed the blade_ and wrapping it around the sword.

To top it all off, his arm chose to start actually hurting when he tried to get up, Green being both panicked and apologetic when it did. "There's nowhere left for you to run," the Galra taunted, stepping forward while holding the sword forward. "Surrender now, and I'll make it quick."

Then Rover (Koji took back his initial view on the drone's AI, it actually _was_ a smart robot!) flew out of seemingly nowhere and smacked into the side of the Galra's head, sending him stumbling. Taking the opportunity, he tried his second plan again; this time the blade wrapped around one of the Galra's legs, who swung his arms a bit in an attempt to keep his balance, stumbling back in an attempt to stay on his feet.

In the span of those few seconds, prompted by the bayard automatically returning to its inactive state, Koji remembered _very abruptly_ how narrow the catwalk was.

At that exact moment, Jordan was wondering how the hell he ended up in this situation.

The "house" was really just a small cave off to the side in the tunnel, with various old, worn, and some rotted-looking furniture here and there, and the dishes were just hollowed-out stones.

The upside to it was that he had some food that, as much as he'd have liked to turn it down, actually looked like _food_ , being some kind of soup made by Shay's and Rax's grandmother. (That had been the main reason why he'd tried it anyways. That, and he was kind of hungry at this point. It was…admittedly pretty good, and tasted something like clam chowder.)

He turned his attention away from the soup for a bit, asking "So how many of you guys are here, anyways?"

"There are thousands here on Balmera," was the response from the siblings' dad. "We all live and work in these mines, harvesting crystals for Zarkon. He may rule, but we still have one another."

"I don't suppose you'd know where we could find a battleship-class crystal, then?" Coran asked hopefully.

"Battleship-class? Those are most rare." The Balmeran's tone turned apologetic before he added, "Galra guard them ceaselessly when they are found. Your quest is in vain."

"Though you could stay until Balmera gives another crystal, hidden from Galra eyes," their mother suggested.

"We don't have that kind of time," Jordan said, stress leaking into his tone. "Our team's—one of my teammates is hurt really bad, and we need that crystal to help him."

"There is one," Shay started tentatively. "Found only one movement ago. It is almost excavated, so perhaps you could—"

"Quiet!" Rax snapped. "Even if they could steal the crystal from the Galra, battle patrols wait to take down their ship. These ones have no chance of getting out of here alive, with crystal or without, and our family will be torn asunder if they are found here with us!"

That was the last straw. Jordan stood up, saying "Oh, I guess you know _for sure_ that we'd get caught, huh?"

Coran intervened then, quickly saying "Okay, okay!" while looking between Jordan and Rax, who was glaring back at him. "Jordan, why don't you, uh, go fix the pod while I do some reconnaissance?"

Jordan stuttered a bit, startled. "B-But I—I don't know how to—"

He stopped when Coran quirked one eyebrow a bit, a silent message in the expression. _Is this really the time for arguing?_

It wasn't.

Exhaling sharply, Jordan replied with a hissed "Fine," before turning on his heel, stalking out. _Who does that guy think he is, anyways?_ he thought angrily, pausing to kick a loose stone. He stopped himself at the last second, remembering something: they were on a living planet-thing that might actually feel that.

There wasn't any lighting where the shuttle was, so he had to use the gauntlet's flashlight to find the panel. Everything inside it _looked_ okay, at least to Jordan, though the few orange crystals seemed out-of-place among all the blue…

 _Oh wait._ They probably weren't supposed to be crooked like that. They went back into place easily, turning cyan when they did.

"Well, that wasn't too hard," he muttered to himself, seeing the screens inside flicker back on. A quiet scraping sound caused him to tense before looking to the side, and he almost jumped when he saw Shay standing a few feet away. "You're a lot quieter than you look," he said after a few moments, voice terse—she wasn't the one he was angry with, but he had to force his voice to stay level.

"It comes with practice."

There was a pause, before she added, "May I ask something?"

He hesitated, wondering what it might be, before conceding. "Uh, sure."

"What is the sky like?"

Jordan froze. Of all the possible questions, he hadn't expected _that_ to be it. "The—the sky?" he repeated, not able to keep the disbelief out of his voice that time. "You mean you haven't ever seen it?"

"No. Sometimes, when the guard patrols in this area are lax, I climb as high as I dare, but then it's always too dark to see anything."

Jordan bit his lip. _Okay, now I'm starting to feel bad about this._ "Well, uh…I didn't really get a good look at what the sky here is like," he started awkwardly, scratching the back of his head a bit. "But the sky on Earth is blue, like—like the screens here…" She looked lost, so he added, "Earth's where I come from."

Shay sighed a bit. "How lucky you are, to be able to fly in this machine far from here."

"W-Well…" What was he supposed to say to that? _Guess I'll have to wing it,_ he decided, scratching the back of his neck a bit. Maybe he could get a question or two of his own answered while he was at it. "Well, things are gonna be changing soon. Y'know what Voltron is, by any chance?"

She regarded him dubiously in response. "It's a children's tale. Why?"

Jordan faulted a bit. "Uh. Well, it's real, and I'm—I'm one of the p-pilots for it." (There, he just said it out loud. There was no denying it now.)

Shay blinked, the disbelief changing into curiosity, but before she could say anything, Coran jogged out of the tunnel. "I think we might just be in luck," he said cheerily. "The crystal's lightly guarded at the moment."

Rax was close behind him, and Jordan clenched one fist a bit without thinking about it. "Is your ship repaired that you may depart our presence?" the Balmeran asked icily.

"We're not going without that crystal," Jordan replied in the same tone. To Coran, he added, "You know how to get it, right?"

"Yes, actually. Follow me!"

A few twists and turns led to a more-open tunnel, and Jordan stopped abruptly when Coran did at one corner. The Altean silently pointed to a sentry standing guard by another, smaller tunnel. Jordan smirked a bit in response—now for the fun stuff—and the robot was dispatched with one quick shot from his bayard.

"Right, now I'll put this on…" Coran pried the helmet off of the robot before putting it over his own head. "And we'll need to find a cloak or something…"

There were only two more robots beyond the gap, seemingly not having noticed the commotion, and they were down almost as quickly as the first one. "Though I suppose that works too." Coran side-eyed him. "You didn't hit the Balmera at all, did you?"

"Hey, I'm one of the best shots the Garrison has," Jordan retorted before looking at the thing they'd come for. It was pretty big, even when half-buried. "So how're we gonna…what are you _doing_? I thought we had to hurry!"

"I can't just pry this out of here!" was the sharp response from Coran. "The Balmera is a living creature. You have to communicate with it—let your life forces connect." As he spoke, the crystal shimmered a faint blue under his hands. "This is how we did it back then."

 _Weird alien magic thing. Got it._ The crystal's glow brightened a bit for a few seconds before dimming again. Then the ground shook a bit under Jordan's feet, and he quickly steadied himself against the wall before he fell over. After that, the dirt around the crystal all fell away, and it started tipping over.

Coran quickly reached to stop it, and Jordan stepped forward to help, but stopped short when he heard a distinct cracking sound, simultaneous with a strangled sound from the Altean. "Uh…are you okay?"

"I think I'm broken," was the hoarse response.

"Ugh, hang on a—" Jordan stopped at hearing heavy footsteps behind then, and looked over his shoulder. Apparently _that_ commotion was heard…by several other sentries. _Shit._

Coran pushed himself up onto his feet, though he was stanced awkwardly. "O-Okay guys, I—I hate to do this," he got out, voice wavering. "Blasters and badges now—c'mon give—give them up." His voice cracked at the end, and he toppled over.

Jordan considered the options he had quickly. He could try to blast them all with his bayard, but then he'd _definitely_ hit the Balmera, with how two of the sentries were ducked behind stalagmites. And with Coran down like that, even with the gauntlet's shield…this was a no-win situation, no matter how he looked at it.

He hissed out a choice word before slowly putting his hands up.

"I, ah, guess I got a little overzealous there," Coran said some time later, after managing to stand up. Jordan didn't reply, still scowling at the ground from where he was leaning back against the wall. Coran's response to the silence was to change tactics: "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way out of this!"

"How?" Jordan asked flatly.

"Well…uh…"

"Thought so."

Coran sighed after a bit, admitting "Alright, so we're in a bit of a bind here."

"A _bit_?" Jordan repeated, exasperated. "One of my teammates was _practically_ _dying_ when we left Arus, and now we're _stuck here_!" He was aware of the fact that he was getting steadily louder, but he was well beyond the point of caring. "I don't know about you, but I'd call that a—!"

"Shh!"

Startled, he looked at Coran, who was staring intently at one of the passages to the side. Jordan could hear footsteps approaching now, and they were too light to be the sentry that made its rounds every other minute…and that was because it was Shay, holding the disembodied arm of the aforementioned sentry.

"Shay, wha'…not that I'm complaining or anything, but what're you doing here?" he asked incredulously. Instead of answering the question out loud, she held the robot-arm up to the panel by the forcefield-door, which dissipated almost immediately.

"Make haste to your ship," she said. "The crystal is prepared for departure."

"How did you get it there?" Coran asked, puzzled.

"I was assigned to take it to the upper levels, but instead I took it down," she replied quietly, sounding almost as though she was trying to convince herself that she'd done it to begin with. "Soon, they will discover my ruse. Time is short."

"Uh—thanks for doing this, but—whyare you doing this?" Jordan asked once his brain processed what she meant by that. She helped them, even though she'd get into some _huge_ trouble if she was found out? _Why_?

She looked at him. "Because your arrival here has given me hope. My wish is for Balmera to be free—perhaps your Voltron can make that so, if the tale is to be believed." He blinked owlishly at the response, not having expected that answer at all whatsoever.

The narrow tunnels opened up after a minute of them running, but the lack of sentries in itself should've been a warning. Shay stopped abruptly, eyes widening in shock. "No…Rax, why?"

Her brother was there waiting, with a whole row of sentries behind him, all armed. "These two bring only trouble to our family," was his harsh response. "It was the only way to protect you."

 _Protect?!_ Bayard in hand, Jordan took a step forward, only for Shay to put an arm in front of him. "No," she said again, tone equally fierce. "The Balmera will save us." She crouched, placing her other hand onto the ground, which seemed to glow faintly just like the crystal had with Coran earlier, ignoring Rax's protest.

The noise that followed sounded almost like a whale, if a whale was planet-sized and made of rock—the Balmera _really_ _was alive_ , then.

The whole tunnel system shook, stones falling onto more than a few of the sentries. It was the perfect diversion, and Jordan intended to make use of it.

What happened earlier aside, Coran seemed to have recovered from his back giving out with how fast he cleared the distance to the shuttle. Jordan was about to vault himself into the cockpit along with him when he heard a yelp from behind, and he turned to see Shay tied up now with violet-hued wire-like ropes.

"Jordan, we have to go now!" Coran shouted, nearly drowning out Shay's words that were also along those lines.

 _Fuck today,_ he thought, before shouting "We'll come back here!" before the ship's cockpit sealed itself up after he was in the copilot seat.

"That we will," Coran agreed solemnly as the shuttle rocketed forward and upwards. His tone wavered when he added, "But we might be back here sooner than we want if we can't shake those fighters!"

"Who says we have to shake 'em?" If there was any time to pull a Molly, it was now—Jordan pointed at the one button that was more off to the side than the others, added by the team mechanics.

"Uh, that might turn us into a giant fireball!"

"What else can we do?!"

Coran's eyes darted between the button, the screen showing all the fighters behind them, and the approaching yellow sky of the Balmera, before gulping audibly. "Fire in the hole!" he shouted, which Jordan took as the cue to hit the button.

 _Hyperdrive prototype_ indeed: the shuttle shot forward fast enough to press Jordan back into the seat, just narrowly missing a few metal bridges spanning the mine shaft before exploding into open air—not literally, but by the sound of it a few of the Galra fighters hadn't been as lucky.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Coran said almost breathlessly as they were leaving the atmosphere. "I'll have to see if I can't get Koji to tell me more about that add-on of his and Stan's when we get back."

"Yeah," Jordan mumbled, not really listening. _Stan, you better still be breathing when we get back._

"Haxus, come in!" Sendak repeated angrily for what must have been the fifteenth time at the least, shouting by now. Shiro had to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying _He probably isn't going to_. He didn't think Sendak had realized he'd woken up yet. If so, he wanted it to stay that way, at least for now.

Allura and Molly were outside the castle. Koji was _inside_ the castle somewhere, and had managed to make the main turbine short out. Now he was going to try to get the particle barrier down, so that the other two could get in.

The other Galran, Haxus, was out of the picture, some way or another. Sendak had gone quiet now, after Shiro had seen the flicker of a display screen, and there was a different sort of air about him now, a simmering rage that left Shiro with a nagging feeling that something had happened.

A quiet, breathy sound made Shiro freeze, gaze flickering toward Stan. He'd been worryingly silent until now, and while this was a good sign, now would _not_ be a very good time for him to wake up.

"So you _are_ awake, then." So much for keeping Sendak in the dark. "I'm impressed you managed to even escape," the commander went on. "Perhaps it would be worth the trip to your planet to see if the rest of your kind have your spirit. Of course, they will all end up broken, just like you." Shiro bit his tongue to keep himself from making a comeback. He was _not_ broken.

Sendak let out a humorless laugh. "Of course, all planets now share the same fate, now that we have Voltron." He stalked back toward the console—and then he cursed, running from the bridge with his prosthetic raised.

Shiro let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, before turning his attention back to Stan. He was definitely starting to come around: his eyelids were twitching a bit, and Shiro could make out a slight frown.

He was so focused that he nearly missed the sound of an electronic shorting out—more specifically, the one remaining sentry being shorted out by a green-glowing dagger attached to a cable, and it hitting the floor preceded Koji skidding to a halt once he'd run into the room, attention zeroing in on the two of them.

"Shiro, are you—is he—?"

Shiro interrupted Koji's stutters with "He's fine. We're both okay, but you have to—"

Everything seemed to happen too fast at once then, starting with the technician being abruptly yanked backwards with a yelp. "If you thought that hologram trick would work on me," Sendak hissed slowly. "You are _gravely_ mistaken."

A glance up had Shiro started debating on if the heat given off by his prosthetic while active could weaken the restraint on his hands enough for him to break it—the way that Koji was scrabbling at Sendak's grip was a clear indicator that hold was tight enough to keep him from breathing.

That was when both Allura and Molly ran onto the bridge, the former's expression dark with anger, and the latter's shock quickly being replaced with a cold fury.

It was a stalemate again—and that was when Shiro heard a soft groan next to him; his eyes darted to the side in time to see Stan lift his head slightly, blinking slowly in confusion when he saw Shiro. Then he looked more towards the others.

Shiro couldn't see his face, but he did see the yellow bayard flicker into existence, slowly being picked up, and was then fired. Sendak staggered, the shot not being enough to get through his armor but enough to make an impact, Koji being dropped immediately; he wasted no time in scrambling a way, coughing a bit.

And then Shiro _moved_ , launching himself at the commander, simultaneously with the princess. She was knocked aside by Sendak's augmented prosthetic, but that left him open just long enough for Molly to dart in and jam her bayard's bow-form up into the divide between the arm and its port, just enough for it to lock into place.

The speed at which he rounded on her and her expression shifting from anger to a _that-might've-been-a-bad-idea_ look, her gauntlet's shield winking into existence just in time to block a furious kick, coincided with Shiro feeling rather than hearing his restraint being cut.

An exclamation from Allura was a signal—a signal for _what_ exactly, Shiro hadn't been sure of, but he'd managed to land a solid blow to Sendak's face hard enough to make him stumble back toward the crystal he'd plugged into the castle.

Then he'd noticed the glowing line encircling the central pedestal, where a particle barrier rose up from the moment the Galra was over the line. Sendak shouted something, but whatever it was cut off when Allura pressed a key on the console, blocking the sound.

It was over, but Shiro didn't waste any time. "Are any of you hurt?" he asked, turning to the others.

"I'm—I'm okay," Molly said, looking shaken, eyes looking past him and at the barrier.

"I'm unharmed as well," was Allura's response, having made her way to the console. "I'm going to need one of you to help me disconnect that… _thing_ from the castle."

"What about him?" Molly pointed at Sendak, who had settled for glowering at them when he'd realized they couldn't hear him. Her voice wavered slightly when she spoke.

Allura tapped another key in response, and the inside of the barrier was promptly flooded with an opaque mist. When it cleared, Sendak had dropped to the floor. Molly looked alarmed, but before she could say anything, Allura clarified, "He's only sleeping. For a few vargas, at the least."

Shiro turned his attention to the mechanics then. "What about you two?"

"'ve been better," Stan muttered, words slurring together slightly. "Ever'thin' hurts."

"You did take an explosion point-blank, so I think that's normal," Shiro remarked, helping him stand. "Do you think you can walk?"

"…think so." To the side, the way the light was cast reflected off Koji's glasses made it a little difficult to get a read on anything specific, but worry was written all over his face.

Allura glanced back at them, frowning slightly. "You two should get him to the infirmary," she said, nodding at Molly and Koji. "Coran and Jordan shouldn't be gone for much longer." They didn't need any further prompting, with Shiro staying at the unspoken maybe-request.

"Have you heard anything from them?" he asked.

"No, not yet. I didn't think we'd be making use of the castle's holding deck so quickly…"

Shiro looked at her, alarmed. "We're keeping Sendak here?"

"Well, we can't set him free."

That occurred to him moments before she said it, and he sighed. "You're right, you're right…I don't know how the others are going to take that."

She made a noncommittal sound in response, before pausing. Then she smiled. "Coran just contacted me—they're within sight of Arus, and they have a crystal."

Shiro looked sideways at her. "We're not leaving tomorrow, are we."

Her face faltered, shoulders slumping. "No, we're not. We need to leave Arus as soon as we can, but Coran and I will have to check all of the castle's systems for any damage dealt by that Galra crystal, and I'd prefer if we waited until Stan is fully recovered." Allura paused before adding, "And I think it would do the others some good to have tomorrow off."

Shiro nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with that sentiment, before starting toward the door. If the new crystal was anywhere close to the size of the last one, Coran and Jordan could probably use the extra help moving it.

"He should be fine after a quintant in there."

"Should be?" Molly repeated, tense.

"Give or take a varga," Coran clarified. "Advanced as the pods are, they aren't always precise in terms of timing. It varies between the individual, and the severity of the injury plays a big part in it." He nodded at the one active device, which had a screen showing vitals displayed on the glass. "Rest assured, everything's fine."

Installing the new crystal had taken a bit more work than taking out the Galra crystal had, but when it was all said and done with, the castle was once again lit in cyan. The relief that had flooded over from Black when that occurred had nearly overtaken Shiro's own at seeing that—and it was the first thing he'd actually felt from her after the incident with the creature.

After that—and after a quick once-over from Coran to remove any remaining shards of crystal that had splintered into his back—a pod had been prepped for Stan, hence where they were now. Koji hadn't said anything yet, staring at the displays. Shiro glanced sideways at him, frowning a little. He still didn't know what happened to Haxus, and neither Altean had mentioned anything yet.

He had a nagging suspicion on what _might've_ happened, but he'd have to ask one of them to pull up security footage taken while everything was happening to be sure. And speaking of which—

"I just wanna know how they even got that bomb in here in the first place," Jordan grumbled, brow furrowed a bit. "How come none of us saw it come in?"

"I'd like to know that as well," Allura agreed, bringing up a screen showing the bridge. For a minute, nothing happened, until Stan went into the room, soon followed by Coran. Then, as the video showed them both leaving, Jordan leaned forward a bit, pointing. "Right there," he said, and Shiro looked closer as well.

On the feed, Stan froze, turning around to look at the Galra drone before running to shove Coran down, right as a bloom of orange overtook the feed, followed by it going dark.

For one very long minute, no one said anything, until there was a quiet "Ah," from Coran. "That would explain it. I suppose that's another thing to put on the list—giving Rover a non-transferrable access code!"

The only response that got was a sudden flurry of footsteps, but by the time Shiro had turned, Koji was already gone, the aforementioned drone chirping in a way that almost sounded guilty.

Jordan took a step toward the doorway, but Shiro reached to stop him. "It's been a long night," he said, keeping his voice even. "Why don't you two go get some sleep?"

Molly frowned. "But what about—?"

"I think he needs some space right now."

They both stared at him for a second before looking to each other, visibly slumping slightly, before turning to head out, turning towards the bedrooms.

Once Shiro was sure they were out of earshot, he turned to Allura and Coran, saying "There was another Galra with Sendak." Allura didn't reply vocally, instead bringing up the security screen again, though this time focused on the turbine room.

Haxus had been there, and nothing happened until the turbine suddenly flared, with the Galra dropping like a puppet with its strings cut. Koji stumbled into view shortly after, Rover floating a slight ways ahead of him.

Shiro was right in thinking that the fight would've been one-sided, because it was, up until Rover rammed into the side of the Galra's head, which preceded Koji managing to trip him up with his bayard.

A sharp intake of breath was heard when Haxus fell over the edge of the catwalk, and it took a moment for Shiro to realize that it had been him.

"Oh no," Coran said softly as it went on. The technician hadn't moved an inch for a minute, before starting violently—likely when Sendak had first demanded a report from Haxus—and then turning to run/stumble out of the room, Rover tailing him. "Poor boy."

Allura didn't say anything, though she was biting her lip. Finally, she said, "We won't be leaving Arus tomorrow."

Shiro had already known that, and Coran simply nodded.


	8. Wayward

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Wayward**

It was quiet for a little while, the steady beeping from the console notwithstanding, until Eva finally asked "Does he look any better?"

"I can't tell," Jordan replied, frowning while leaning forward slightly. There was a pause, before he added "I don't think he's feeling anything from it, at least."

"Yeah…" Definitely not feeling anything—Coran had compared it to being in a very deep sleep. Stan definitely looked like he was just asleep.

She and Jordan gotten up at almost, if not exactly the same time, though Eva had a feeling it was more because of habit than anything else. She hadn't realized that she thought Koji would've been there, until she saw that he wasn't.

As if sharing the thought, Jordan asked "You think Koji's doing okay?" while sounding something between worried and uneasy.

Eva shrugged, frowning slightly. Part of her knew that it wasn't really a good thing for them to have done, but she'd managed to convince Jordan to stick around by the door to the infirmary with her for another minute or two. She hadn't heard much then, but what _was_ heard wasn't liked. "Should we…go look for him?" she asked quietly.

"I think I'm gonna try finding something edible first, but you go ahead," Jordan replied, looking slightly sheepish. "Just, uh, it might take a while. If you think the place looks big from the _outside_ …besides, we'd probably have more luck if we split up."

Jordan probably had a point there. She checked the hangar first: the first thing she saw was that someone had brought her rocket-seat in last night, seeing as it was propped up against the _Arrow_. The second thing was that it was empty, aside from her. But where else would Koji be?

She found after a few minutes' worth of thinking that she really didn't know. Eva huffed a bit, heading back into the hall. _I'll probably run into him eventually if I keep walking._

Of course, the first hall she chose to check was just a straight line for a few minutes. At least, until it started widening a bit, along with the ceiling arching slightly, and it ended with a single, large doorway.

Through it was a Lion hangar—but not Red's. The Yellow Lion was standing slightly off to the side in the room; and she paused when she was halfway across the hangar, backtracking to that observation.

The Lion was _standing_. Whenever she'd gone to Red's hangar, Red had always been sitting. Same with when they first found him on Alwas. It was also what the Green Lion had defaulted to when they'd first brought both of them to Arus. Yellow had been sitting then, too.

"You're worried too, huh," she said aloud, looking up at him. The Lion didn't budge, but Eva was _pretty sure_ that his attention was on her now.

If she thought about it, she could _just_ make out something that was kind of like Red's presence, but markedly different—and not just because it was behind what was like a thick haze. It was another sort of warmth, but more of a _sand-in-sun_ kind.

 _Is that Yellow?_ Red was in the background, seeming almost surprised, but he pushed off an affirmative when that thought ran through her head.

Eva hadn't thought that possible before now, but in retrospect…it did kind of make sense. It also made it worth asking something. "Has Koji come through here at all?"

The response was a little difficult to make sense, with the metaphorical fog and all, but it was still clear enough for Eva to make out as a negative, coupled with a suggestion. "Green's hangar?" she mused, before shrugging. _It's_ _worth a shot._

She remembered to say thanks and got a bemused rumble in response. Then Red practically ambushed her the moment she'd stepped into the hall on the other side of the hangar, pride radiating off of him.

"What?" she asked, confused. "All I did was ask a question."

The Lion was definitely amused about something, but he wouldn't clarify what it was.

* * *

Fish jerky wasn't really something Jordan would've ever considered breakfast, but it tasted a lot better than whatever the rations was made of. Over the course of ten minutes, he'd found that the castle had one _very_ big library, a weirdly-proportioned room that was vacant save for a single console, another common-room (this one having a carpet), and a pool deck, though the pool itself was vacant of water.

 _Maybe that's for the better,_ he thought before turning away from it. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what ten-thousand-year-old stagnant water looked like. Or, well, however long a _decaphoeb_ was. It sounded like it was something close to a year.

He stopped at an intersection in the hallway, looking all three directions. Where in the castle might Koji be? _The hangar?_ He turned to start that way, before stopping. _Or maybe not. It's not like we can do anything with the_ Arrow _right now anyways._

The opposite direction didn't feature too much in terms of rooms. There were three bedrooms a few levels simpler than the ones he and the others had, not having much more than beds with dusty blankets on them, and another two rooms full of all sorts of miscellaneous junk.

There was also a larger room that featured yellow-hued lamps on the ceiling, right over three rows of vacant planters filled to the brims with grayish-brown soil. "A greenhouse, too?" he muttered, surprised. Just how many things did this place have?

Blue perked up in the back of his head then—the Green Lion's hangar was just further down the hall. "You really think Koji would be there?" he asked. A mental shrug came in response.

It was something, at least.

The first thing Jordan noticed in there was, of course, the Green Lion itself, given that it took up most of the space in there. The second thing found was that Blue's guess was actually correct: there was a small desk shoved up against the not-quite-a-corner of the hangar, which Koji was standing by while doing something with his tablet. If the way he was scowling at it was any clue, he wasn't having too much luck with whatever it was.

Jordan didn't get a chance to try getting Koji's attention though, since he turned to look at the Lion, and saw him at the same time—he flinched hard enough to jump a little, and scrambled a bit to keep his tablet from hitting the floor when he'd inadvertently yanked it off of the desk.

"Uh, sorry," Jordan said uncertainly, putting his hands up a bit. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you."

"It's fine," the technician replied nonchalantly. At least, as nonchalantly as someone apparently trying to hide their entire left arm from view could. "What are you doing here?"

"Just…exploring, I guess." It hadn't been what he'd meant to say, but it wasn't entirely wrong either. "There's a library not too far from here that's _huge_. Not to mention a pool—though, uh, it's empty."

"That's probably a good thing."

Jordan made his way over to the desk, glancing at the tablet's screen for a second. "What are you doing, anyways?"

Koji shrugged a little. "I was thinking about trying to copy the cloaking tech that maze uses."

"For what, the Lions?"

"Well, yes."

"Sounds, uh, fun."

"I wish." He made a short, irritated sound as he spoke. "First I have to figure out how to get this to show Altean numbers."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Jordan said, trying to sound reassuring. Some movement at the other end of the hangar caught his attention; Molly stopped at seeing them for a second, before starting toward them. Koji saw him looking, and turned—and promptly yelped, hand quickly going to his left arm, which had hit the desk.

"I'm okay," the technician said quickly, making a very bad attempt at smiling.

"Are you sure?" Molly asked cautiously.

"Y-Yeah. Just stings a bit."

A low metallic rumbling sound echoed in the hangar then, startling Jordan. Blue pointed out the source of it seconds later, at the same time as Koji glancing sideways and up at the Green Lion.

Jordan hadn't noticed it before, but the Lion's head was angled down slightly, so that its eyes were visible. If he hadn't known any better, he would've said it was giving a stern look.

"Did—something happen last night?" he tried.

Koji didn't reply for a few seconds, biting his lip, before he said, "I, uh, might've gotten shocked a bit when I shorted the turbine out last night. I think it left a mark."

Molly looked confused. "Wait, how did you even do that?"

"Um. I hit it with—with the bayard." His face flushed slightly at seeing the confounded look Molly was giving him. "It wasn't—I panicked."

"Okay, so did you look at it?" At the same time, Jordan tried to think back to the few first-aid lessons he could remember that touched on anything burn-related.

He didn't catch the mumbled response, but assumed it was a _no_ , given the grimace that followed him pulling the sleeve back. Threadlike lines started at the technician's wrist, branching out in a weblike pattern until they faded out toward his elbow, being reddish-purple in color and having blistered in a few places already.

To the side, Molly paled a little. "I'll, um, go find—someone," she said quickly before turning to leave the hangar.

"I don't know anything about electrical burns," Jordan admitted. "But that's gonna get worse if it's not looked at."

Koji didn't protest that time, following without a word. Jordan didn't say anything either, feeling awkward all of a sudden. _I think that was the longest I've ever talked to him._

Molly was already at the infirmary with Coran by the time they got there, with the latter's bemused look being promptly replaced by an understanding one at seeing the burn, before he promptly retrieved a roll of bandages and a small canister from a panel in the wall.

"I suppose that has to do with how you shorted out the turbine earlier," he said while applying some of the canister's blue-gray contents to the burn, which there was another mumble to. "Don't worry, no harm done. I probably would've done the same if I'd been there."

"How come you didn't tell any of us about that?" Jordan asked after a pause.

"I forgot," was the mumbled answer from Koji, attention somewhere between what Coran was doing and the floor, and definitely not on the one active larger device in the room.

Jordan tensed a little when Molly elbowed him a bit; she didn't say anything, but she looked about as worried as he was feeling. That burn had to have been _hurting_ at first.

"Why don't the three of you go visit the Arusians?" Coran suggested lightly after setting the bandages, having looked between them quickly for a second. "Some fresh air'll do you good, I think. It might be your last chance for a little while. I know Shiro's down there already."

"That sounds like a good idea," Molly said, something close to guilt flickering across her face for a moment at the mention of the Arusians. "Maybe we could—I don't know, help them fix things?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jordan agreed quickly. Koji looked uncertain for a second, before shrugging a little.

* * *

Eva just went right for Red's hangar, not bothering to get anything else. She hadn't given much thought as to _how_ Koji had gotten the castle's main turbine to shut off the night before, but now that she saw the result of what he'd done, well…if she'd been a little worried before, she was _actually_ worried now.

But every time she tried thinking of something to say, she drew a blank.

The three Lions were set near Black, and a small group of Arusians had broken off from the bustle in the village at seeing them coming.

Shiro was with them, too. "Did Allura send you three out here too?" he asked.

Eva shook her head. "Coran just suggested it. Is there anything we can help with?"

He looked back at the village. "Mostly house repairs. If it's anything like I've been doing, it's just going to involve holding things up."

And Shiro was right about that. More often than not, over the course of the day, she found herself having to make sure the framework for various rooftops stayed in place, while various Arusians worked on filling the aforementioned frames with clay. The good news was that the frames, at the most, only went about three feet above her eye-level.

At one point, she saw the frame Jordan was holding up start slipping, so she ran to catch it. He sighed a bit, muttering a "Thanks."

"It was nothing," she replied, looking around. "You know what? This isn't taking as long as I thought it was going to."

"Yeah," he agreed, looking around as well. "Well, Shiro was here for a while already, too."

For a few minutes, neither of them said anything, though Eva was becoming aware of Red doing that mental side-eye again. She stifled a groan when she realized why, and hastily tried thinking of something to change the subject. "Um—did you see where Koji went?"

Jordan paused, looking around. "No, but the Green Lion's still here, so he's somewhere." Then he blinked, before biting his lip. "Hey, uh, Molly? I think I might've just realized something." She looked at him, puzzled, prompting him to add "We never really talked to him or Stan too much back on Alwas. When there wasn't a race or anything, I mean."

 _He's right._ Suddenly the reason for the awkwardness was clear. Though if anything, the current topic was just making her feel even more uncomfortable about everything. "Think we should try talking to him again later?" Jordan didn't answer, looking uncertain. Different tactic, then: "So how was the—the Balmera?"

This time, Jordan was the one that froze. "It, uh…wasn't…really that great." He stammered a little at first, but then ended it with something more like a mutter.

"And?" she pressed. "What was it like there?" Whether he thought it was interesting or not didn't mean that _she_ wouldn't find it interesting at all.

"There were Galra everywhere, and we got caught 'cause Coran hurt his back when he tried moving that crystal by himself," he said, looking at the ground. "We wouldn't've gotten out of there if one of the aliens living on the Balmera hadn't helped us. She got in a lot of trouble for it—and it was all because of her _brother_ ratting her out, too!" His tone turned into something of a growl toward the end, clenching a fist.

A slightly-exasperated feeling came from Red, and Eva had to bite her tongue to keep from saying out loud for him to stay out of it. So that hadn't been the best thing to ask about either.

It didn't mean that there wasn't anything else to do, though—like helping the Arusians who were making trips back and forth from the nearby lake.

She followed the departing few after making sure that the roof frame would stay that time, ignoring the confused protest from Jordan. One of the native aliens paused at noticing her, recognition crossing his face. It took her a moment for the same to happen; it was Klaizap.

"Your leader told us what happened," he said. "I am glad to hear that the yellow one will recover."

"Um, thanks," she replied, smiling a little. "I'll tell him that."

The flurry of activity at the lakeshore was divided between fishing and gathering more clay into various bowls and baskets. Eva kept to the latter, if only because she wasn't sure how to go about the former.

Of course, keeping herself occupied only worked for so long, especially when she saw where exactly the lake was—yesterday, the Blue Lion had crash-landed just over the series of gray stone hills. If she'd been hit just a little harder…

Eva stopped that thought before it could finish. Thinking about yesterday was bad enough in that both Stan and Koji had gotten hurt, but that was something minor compared to not knowing where Rick and her dad could be.

At least Klaizap unknowingly helped by asking various questions about where they came from. She'd had to clarify that they weren't from the same planet as Allura and Coran, though.

Eva felt another mental poke from Red, trying to draw her attention back to what she'd been doing. And while she did look back at the basket she'd half-filled, she saw something else, too.

On the opposite shore, there was a rock formation that looked bizarrely smooth compared to the stone around it. And it was either just her, or she could make out faded engravings on it.

She quickly excused herself before starting around towards it, half-aware that Klaizap was following. "What's this supposed to be?" she asked.

The Arusian frowned at the had-to-be-a-building, before saying "I am unsure. I have never seen this before now."

That settled it—she left the basket and started towards the structure, stopping by the sole opening in the surface of it. At leaning forward a little, she could see that the floor was covered in water, but it didn't look _too_ deep, and the inside of the ruin in general didn't look to be in too bad of a condition, either. _Maybe it was just under the rocks at first, and some water got in when Blue crashed there the other day._

There was a narrow stairway curving along the wall, leading all the way down, and the water was a little deeper than Eva expected it to be (okay, _maybe_ she slipped at the end of the stone steps and ended up with a mouthful of lake water that was absolutely disgusting) but the end result was…otherwise disappointing, with the walls being blank almost everywhere.

Or so she thought; Klaizap had followed her down, equally mystified, and was staring up at a portion that the light didn't reach. "These symbols are strange to me," he said, squinting up at it.

Eva tried looking, but aside from some vague dark circular pattern, couldn't see it. "I think you guys have better night-vision than we do," she muttered, shoulders slumping a little. She was half-tempted to go back to the castle to at least get one of the flashlights from the _Arrow_ 's storage compartment—or maybe going to track down Shiro and drag him over here since he had his flight-suit on, which had its own flashlight to begin with.

Finding Shiro would be quicker; Red seemed just as curious about this ruin as Eva was.

"I'll be right back," she said before heading back up the staircase as quick as she could manage. The good news was that she didn't even have to go very far, because all three of the others were on the other shore with the rest of the Arusians.

Jordan noticed her first. "Wha'—Molly?! Don't you remember what happened to the _last_ old thing you wanted to look at?"

"Yeah, but you guys need to see this!" she deflected. "And—and I need a flashlight!"

Shiro didn't ask any questions about it, at least, and Jordan just grumbled something under his breath before following. Koji didn't say anything either, following the other two with a lost sort of uncertainty.

For what felt like a few minutes, the five of them of them stared at the wall carving. "Is it just me, or do those look like star-racers?" Jordan asked finally.

"I doubt that," Koji replied, frowning at it.

"What are these _star-racers_ you speak of?" Klaizap asked, clueless.

"Something we have where we come from," Eva said, half-distracted by another piece of the old mural. Jordan followed her gaze, and blinked owlishly at seeing it too.

"Whoa," he exclaimed quietly, eyes widening. "That's freaky."

"And it doesn't make any sense," Koji added, staring at it. "Arus is—it's _trillions_ of lightyears away from…" He trailed off, shaking his head.

"What does that symbol mean?" Shiro asked, looking almost as lost as Klaizap.

"I think that's the Avatar's symbol," Eva replied, incredulous—she couldn't be certain on that, but she did remember seeing something a lot like it on the ship that had brought them to Alwas. It was as faded as everything else, and had a few notable design differences, but it was still easily recognizable.

"There was something just like this on Alwas, too," she went on. "Jordan and I only got to see the outside of it, but it looked just like this building."

It also brought something else to mind: if the Arusians hadn't built this, then the Scrubs probably hadn't been the one to build the one that had been on Alwas.

 _But if they hadn't, who did?_

Red was paying close attention to it all, though when Eva silently asked if he knew anything about it, he'd hesitated before responding with a confused sort of intrigue.

"Maybe Allura or Coran will know something," Shiro said finally, turning away from the carving. "We should all get back to work."

Eva froze a bit at the mention of Allura, and while it might've been partially Red's doing, the one part of last night that she'd been trying her hardest to _not_ think about came back to her.

Had she known that the mice could talk to the princess, she never would've slipped her name to them—and that in itself has been a spur-of-the-moment, stress-induced decision. _Nothing I can do about it now though,_ she thought grimly, following the others back up the stairs. She hadn't seen Allura yet today either, and part of her wanted it to stay that way.

Red offered some reassurance as they started back up the trail toward the village, but there was that underlying pointedness to it again, with a reminder, and this time she couldn't come up with a protest.

When Allura had asked why Eva was using a fake name, she'd nearly replied with _"Because of my dad,"_ until she'd remembered that her dad wasn't even on Arus to begin with. (She had no idea where in the whole universe he might be and that thought was _terrifying_ on a whole new level.)

Eva just didn't have any real reason to keep going by Molly now.

* * *

Shiro took a step back from the storeroom he'd been holding up the frame for once the Arusian heading that building's repairs gave him the okay, looking around. The sky was starting to fade from blue to peach, and the whole village was almost entirely back on its feet.

He hadn't realized that the Arusian king had approached him until the smaller alien had cleared his throat. "Your help was greatly appreciated, Lion Warrior," he said respectfully. "We owe you our gratitude."

"It was only common courtesy," Shiro replied. "We're the ones that brought the Galra here. It only made sense that we helped repair the damage."

The Arusian grunted a bit in response. "The Li—er, princess told us of your war. You are not at fault for your enemy's actions." Black made a point in focusing his attention on the second half of the sentence to further cement the message.

She had been oddly attentive when they'd been studying the carving on the wall in the old ruin by the lake, but when he'd thrown a questioning feeling at her, she'd just seemed surprised, and hadn't clarified on anything else…and that brought something else to mind. "Are your people the only ones on Arus?"

The king looked up at him, perplexed, before replying, "There may be others, beyond the furthest mountains, but we've never seen any signs to prove it. Why do you ask?"

"My teammates and I found something by the lake. An old stone building, with an illustration of some sort on the wall."

An illustration that depicted what might be something that the Arusians were nowhere _near_ accomplishing with how utterly lost Klaizap had looked, as well as the symbol of an entity that reigned in a galaxy an unfathomable distance away.

To the side, the king looked thoughtful. "I will have to see what you speak of for myself," he murmured, and before heading off in the direction of the forest path, he gave the parting words of "It is good that you allow the younger ones to mark their own paths, but it would be wise to offer guidance to them as well."

And if that wasn't another very good point, Shiro wasn't sure what was—and it reminded him of another pressing matter, prompting him to scan the area again.

In retrospect, he'd thought that he'd noticed Koji favoring his right arm the night before, but he'd noticed the bandages on his left one quickly enough, as had an Arusian who'd been unrelenting in keeping him restricted to the easier tasks that had to be done. The aforementioned tasks were no longer needed, which was probably why he was sitting in the shade of a tree some ways away from the bustle.

Shiro excused himself before starting toward the technician, trying to think of a good way to approach the subject. Koji saw him coming first though, sighing before saying "Before you ask, yes, it feels fine," with some irritation, seeming to catch himself when Shiro put his hands up a bit, mumbling an apology.

"I wasn't going to ask about that, actually." He didn't miss the technician freeze up for a moment, prompting Shiro to choose his next words carefully. "You know you had nothing to do with what happened last night."

Koji looked at him for two seconds before staring at the grass again, pale-faced. "I—I know that, but…"

"You feel responsible because you took Rover from the ship in the first place."

It was a guess, mostly, but one that was proven right at the mumble of "I shouldn't've done that."

"Even if you hadn't, they could've found another way into the castle," Shiro reasoned. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but it wasn't a very far-fetched one either. Black was a noticeable presence now, seeming unsure about the topic.

While he knew it wouldn't be good to let what was being left unsaid wait, Shiro didn't know Koji well enough to know how to bring it up without making things worse.

If anything, it was likely only Stan fit that criteria, which meant it would have to wait either way.

Some motion at the edge of his vision had him turn his head a little. Both Molly and Jordan stopped, looking equally apprehensive for a second, before the former asked "What're you guys talking about?"

"I was just asking about the race on Alwas," Shiro replied smoothly. If the lie caught Koji off-guard, he didn't show it aside from quickly glancing sideways at him. "How far into it was everyone?"

"A little over a week," Jordan replied, leaning against a rock that was to the side. "At least—that's what it felt like. I think days on Alwas are longer than days on Earth."

"And how many races were there?"

"One a day." Koji paused, before adding "For us at least, and only up until the playoffs started."

"Sounds like it was fun," Shiro commented. Something was twitching in the back of his head on this subject, though this time he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with everything else.

A brief silence followed, broken when Molly said "It was, up until the _Arrow_ got cut in half."

"Crog," Jordan supplied, a fair amount of bitterness present in the word. "And don't even get me started on what came after that."

That time, Molly glared at him again, before it was replaced by a look of muted realization. "H-Hold on. Koji, you said something about—all of the pilots being in that list?"

"Almost all of them. I think the only one that _wasn't_ in the list was…whoever we went up against in the third round. I don't remember his name."

Molly looked a little faint. "Then…Prince Aikka…"

"You mean the Nourasian?" Koji sounded uncertain. "I saw both of them in the list. I—sorry."

"It's okay," was the slightly-hollow response. "Thanks for telling me."

To the side, Jordan looked disgruntled, but he didn't say anything. _There's some history there,_ Shiro figured. Good or bad, the matter of Nourasians was one of the many things escaping his current knowledge, so he couldn't really have an opinion on it.

What he _did_ know was that the topic had swerved into something that no one seemed to want to stay on. "I think the repairs are all just about done now," Shiro pointed out, glancing around. "And it's starting to get late. We should probably head back."

* * *

He still didn't get it, and at this point, he probably never would—just _what_ did Molly see in that guy? Blue was a wearily-resigned presence right now, but she was still holding that metaphorical paw up.

Barring Shiro, they'd ended up in one of the lounge rooms that had a carpet this time, and a more-normal couch. Molly was staring blankly at the aforementioned carpet, and Koji was alternating between typing on his tablet and spacing out again.

Either way, it was starting to feel just a little too awkward for Jordan's liking again. "Where'd Shiro go off to, anyways?" he asked.

"Bridge, I think," Koji shrugged.

Molly looked sideways at him, biting her lip a little before asking "How's your arm?"

Another, quieter shrug. "It's just really numb right now."

Jordan looked at him. "Think you'd need to get those bandages replaced?"

Koji looked at the referenced fabric. "…probably?"

"Well, I guess we should go find someone to ask," Jordan said, standing up. "Maybe—maybe we could check in on Stan again while we're at it?"

He was pretty sure Koji went through a few different expressions in the span of three seconds before nodding a little. "Y-Yeah. That—that sounds like a good idea."

Finding the way down to the infirmary ended up being a two-birds-with-one-stone situation—they got there right as Allura was walking out. "Oh, I was wondering where you three were," she said, looking surprised for a second. "You just missed Shiro."

"A-Actually, we were gonna check on Stan again," Molly said.

The Altean glanced back into the infirmary, then back at them. "He won't be up until tomorrow morning at the earliest. But everything's working as it should be." Her attention focused on the technician before adding "Those bandages will have to be replaced every twelve vargas for a few quintants," and turning to get the supplies. "Both those and the salve are in this cabinet. There are some other basic first-aid supplies in here as well."

It was all spoken while she replaced the bandages on Koji's arm, slower than Coran had first done, but the adviser seemed more like he was used to dealing with things like that. Jordan's attention had wandered to the pod, though like last time, he couldn't make heads or tails of the displays. One thing he _did_ notice was that the cut near Stan's eye looked like it was there to stay as a faint, slightly-jagged line.

Then he heard "We'll be setting a course for the Balmera as soon as possible tomorrow morning."

"Wait, we're going there?" Jordan stammered out, looking at Allura.

She nodded, eyes darkening. "Coran told me what state it's in. The sooner we free it from the Galra, the better. I advise you all don't stay up _too_ late—there's definitely going to be a fight for it." With that, she walked out—and part of Jordan noticed that Molly wasn't in the room anymore either.

"So, uh," he started, silently cursing her for leaving like that again. "That hyperdrive thing you guys put on the shuttle works. Actually, if you _hadn't_ , I don't think me and Coran would've even made it back here."

A stilted "Oh," came in response to that, and Jordan had to resist the urge to smack himself in the face. The good news was that Molly came running back in then.

The questionable news was that her coming back included her throwing something at Koji, with only a quick "Catch!" as a warning.

Koji managed to, blinking a few times in a startled way, before looking at the offending objects, and then at her, scowling. "Was it _really_ necessary to throw these at me?"

Molly shrugged in response, trying to hide a smile. As for what the objects were, they were slippers that matched the ones that Jordan had found in his closet on the first day, aside from being green in color. _I guess we all have 'em, then._

She situated herself a relatively-short distance away, and promptly looked a little awkward after seeming like she'd been about to say something.

There was being way too much _awkward_ today for Jordan's liking, but everything he knew about either of the team's mechanics was limited to things he'd heard in passing. And even that wasn't much. Now that it was only them, Shiro, two aliens, four pastel mice, and five giant robot cats in one place, it was coming back to bite.

Jordan wanted to fix that, but he wasn't sure how to.

He paused when he heard footsteps, and looked over his shoulder. As if the thought had summoned him, he saw Shiro there. He'd traded his flight-suit for a more-casual outfit, and was holding something in one hand. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked.

"Not really," Jordan replied, before asking a question of his own: "What's that?"

In response, Shiro turned his hand so they could see it—a card deck. "Coran found these earlier. It might be a good way to pass the time."

 _Might_ , Jordan repeated mentally, eyeing the cards. He didn't recognize the symbols on them, but considering that they were Altean, that was a given. It was a better idea than just standing around, though, and he shrugged before saying, "I'm in. Molly?"

"Uh…sure." As they were following Shiro out, Molly paused before backtracking into the room. A stuttered protest was heard from Koji before they both came out, though Molly was dragging him along by his uninjured arm.

He seemed to resign himself to the fact that there was no getting out of it once they were halfway to the nearest lounge room (the one with the weird couch to be specific), asking "So which one?" when they were there.

"Don't ask me," Molly said, an expression briefly crossing her face that looked like something between frustration and awkwardness.

Jordan thought about it for a few seconds, before saying "I got nothing."

"Kemps?" Shiro suggested, pausing before adding, "It's the only one I can think of right now. There's enough cards here."

"I've never heard of it, but sure," Jordan replied. "How does it go?"

* * *

Truthfully, Shiro's memory of the game's rules were spotty at best. Even then, they had to account for there being two-quarters more cards than a standard human deck—the Altean deck of cards has six colors and four symbols instead of two of each, five being the Lions' colors and the sixth being white. They at least had the same amount of variations in each color for each number.

After their seventh loss, Shiro had begun to regret the decision of suggesting a card game. He was also pretty sure he was learning a new meaning to the word _regret_ after the twelfth defeat for him and Jordan.

While Koji had picked up on it quickly, it had taken Molly a few minutes to figure out how the rules worked. Once she had, that was _that_ , and Shiro quickly became convinced that they made a pretty good team. If he was the tactician of the two, she was the one that showed no mercy.

There was a small break at one point for dinner, which was rations with a side of some leafy purple vegetables that had been part of the supplies that the Arusians had given them that tasted vaguely like a blend of carrots and asparagus, despite looking more like lettuce.

Jordan insisted on trying a different game after their fifteenth failure, which ended up being six rounds of improvised Go-Fish. Molly dozed off after the third one, and the sixth and final was ended when Jordan went down for the count as well.

Koji handed what cards he had left over before looking at his tablet, and Shiro collected them all into a stack to give back to Coran later. "I think those two have the right idea," he commented, getting the technician to look up again for a second.

"I'd rather try to get this over with first," he muttered, scowling at the screen. "I think I almost have it."

For a moment, Shiro found himself thinking of Matt—he'd gotten like that with his projects now and then too. And that comparison brought a few unpleasant thoughts that were promptly quashed, with Shiro moving to pick Jordan up. "Just don't stay up for too long." He paused, before adding, "And I'm sure Coran would be happy to get more of whatever you guys used two nights ago if you need it."

"…I'll think about it."

"That's all I'm asking."

Koji hadn't looked away from the screen.


	9. Liftoff

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Liftoff**

"How much longer are we gonna be waiting for?" Eva asked finally. The first thing she'd done when she'd woken up—she remembered dozing off but she _didn't_ remember going back to her room, so someone must've brought her there—was to head down to the infirmary. Allura had been there already, but so had everyone else.

"Any tick now," the former reported, not looking away from the console.

To the side, Jordan was repeatedly tapping one foot against the floor with a bored look on his face, and had been for a few minutes now. Then he stopped. "Hey, uh, Koji?" The technician glanced sideways at him, prompting him to go on: "So before…all of this, Stan said something about that nunvil stuff tasting like engine oil. You know anything about that?"

If the look on Koji's face was anything to go on, he _did_ know something about it. Coran glanced over at them as well. "I'm unsure of what this _engine oil_ you're talking about is, but something tells me it's not typically edible."

"It's not," Eva confirmed. They had Shiro's attention now as well, and Allura glanced away from the console, both looking curious.

"Well, uh, I kind of promised not to…" Koji trailed off, looking between each of them before sighing resignedly. "Okay, fine, just…just don't say anything about it. It was about seven years ago, and we had a star-racer called the _Storm II_ in for repairs. I don't remember what was wrong with it, just that it was damaged enough for us to have to work on it all night."

"And?" Eva pressed. She thought she felt a chill for a second, but Coran had said earlier that the castle's thermal-regulator still had to be reset.

"Well, leaving a coffee mug and a can of engine oil next to each other when you're half asleep isn't a good idea, and…" He stopped again, looking at Shiro, who was now more focused on the pod that was active. Or at least, it _had been_ active.

The look of indignant betrayal on Stan's face was almost funny.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, until he finally said, "That's payback for the maze, isn't it." Koji stammered a bit before mumbling an apology, which got a half-smile in response. "Hey, I'm the one who slipped it in the first place, so don't worry about it."

"Stan, how're you feeling?" Jordan asked hesitantly.

"Uh…really cold?" He looked around, confused. "Wait, what happened? What're we all doing in here?"

There was a brief silence, before Coran asked, "What's the last thing you can remember?"

"We were talking on the bridge. And then…" Stan shook his head. "Nothing, 'cept waking up just now. Seriously, what the hell happened?"

"We can tell you about it once you've gotten something to eat," Allura said. "You've been in there for an entire quintant."

"A quint— _what_?"

They wound up explaining most of it on the way down the hall, _they_ being Allura, Coran, Shiro, and Jordan.

"So lemme get this straight," he started once they'd reached the dining hall, only paying half attention to the plate of rations Coran provided; he'd taken in all of the details quietly. "Sendak survived his ship crashing, and somehow managed to get a bomb in here."

"That's the gist of it," Allura replied, before frowning a little. "I'm just glad that the initial scan the castle took of you all was enough to let the cryopod configure itself properly. If it hadn't, you might not have survived the blast."

"…oh."

 _Oh_ was putting it lightly. Someone Eva had barely spoken to unless it was necessary had almost gotten killed not even two days ago, and he only would've known a front that she'd invented she'd invented on the spot when her dad hadn't recognized her.

The more she thought about that, the more uncomfortable she was feeling about it.

Stan coughed a bit forcibly. "What're the odds of them having a thing like Rover though?"

"Almost nonexistent," Coran supplied cheerily. "But all's well that ends well!"

Silence followed, and Eva glanced at Koji for a second. He was looking fixedly at the table, shoulders tense. Thankfully, she wasn't the only one who noticed—she heard Stan sigh before saying "Hey, you had nothing to do with that. Okay?"

No response, and this time Allura spoke up, expression brightening a little. "The good news is that we know exactly where we'll be going now."

"Back to the Balmera me and Coran went to," Jordan clarified before Stan could ask.

Red was persistently lurking in the back of Eva's head right now, being sure to point out that they were all in the same room right now. _I know that,_ she thought, clenching one fist slightly.

Allura knew her real name was already, and no amount of avoiding her would change that—and Eva had a nagging feeling that Shiro was at least suspecting something.

She took a deep breath, Red now purring reassuringly. The one reason she kept her identity secret wasn't here.

(She had no idea where he was and that thought was still terrifying, but the sooner they left Arus the sooner they'd have a chance of finding him and Rick.)

Eva didn't have a reason to go by Molly anymore.

Not to everyone who was here right now, anyways.

"I think it's time we got moving," Shiro said, standing up. "The sooner we get to the Balmera, the better."

"H-Hold on a second," Eva started, trying to keep the stutter out of her voice. "There's—something I should…p-probably tell you guys first."

The others all stopped where they were heading for the hall leading to the bridge, looking back at her. She subconsciously swallowed when she noticed that, taking another breath to try to steady her nerves, which suddenly seemed insistent on going haywire. _C'mon Eva, don't blow it now…_

Jordan frowned, puzzled. "Uh, Molly, what're you—"

"That's not actually my name."

It was out in one go, being louder than she'd intended, but she'd said it. At the same time, she suddenly felt like it was impossible to breathe, and a little lightheaded.

The confusion from everyone else was practically tangible, save for Allura, for whom it had been replaced by comprehension. All four of the mice, having been running around on the table, were at attention now as well.

The princess was smiling faintly in an encouraging way, and Red was broadcasting a prideful sort of reassurance.

There was no going back now anyways, so she might as well finish it. "It's, um, actually Eva."

* * *

For a few seconds, Jordan stood there wondering if he'd misheard something, until Blue informed him that he hadn't by means of briefly metaphorically yanking him into a disconcertingly-realistic flashback of the first day on Alwas.

"So _that's_ what you almost said back then," he blurted, eyes wide. She'd _almost_ said her name had been Eva back then, before saying Molly instead.

Shiro broke out of the shock next. "I'm glad you told us," he said, smiling warmly. "Owning who you are will help you grow as a person." In response, Molly— _Eva_ —exhaled quietly, seeming relieved.

At least, until Coran asked, "Is it normal for humans to have two names?" which brought the panicked look back.

"Not really," Koji replied, both he and Stan looking lost. "Mol—Ev—wait, which one do you…?"

"Eva's fine," she mumbled, eyes fixing to the floor. Coran's question also had Jordan wondering about _why_ she'd had them all thinking that her name was Molly, but he didn't get a chance to ask.

"You can tell us why when you're ready to," Shiro said, and she looked up at him for a few long moments.

Then, huffing a bit, she responded with "Well, weren't we going to get moving after Stan got up?"

"That was the plan, but—" Allura started.

"Then let's go!" She turned on her heel and started for the door, with the parting words of "The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can find Rick and my dad!"

And that was what had Jordan's mind break for the second time that day. _Her…_ what _?_

"I'm sorry, did—did I miss something?" Coran asked after a few moments of shocked silence, glancing between all of them.

"I think all of us did," Koji replied distractedly, looking equally lost. "If…if she really is Don Wei's daughter, then why did she have all of us think her name was something else?"

 _That's a good question,_ Jordan thought. There was no way the team manager could've been in on it, with how he acted with her—but then how hadn't he recognized her? Don didn't seem much like a family person to begin with, but Jordan didn't think she'd lie about something like that.

Then a comment she'd made back on Alwas came back to him—she'd mentioned a boarding school.

"That would explain it," Stan muttered when Jordan mentioned it, expression darkening. "I think I'm gonna have a few _words_ with that man when I see him again."

Allura cleared her throat. "Well, all of this aside," she started. "Eva had a point. The sooner we can get to the Balmera, the sooner we can free its inhabitants from the Galra."

Eva was on the bridge already, having been sitting on the floor, but she scrambled to her feet when she saw them—and that was when it occurred to Jordan that he wasn't sure what to say to her now.

Coran went right to the computer console, followed closely by both Stan and Koji, whereas Allura took her spot at the center pedestal, an array of holoscreens appearing right after the control sticks. It was also followed by the room having five extra chairs coincidentally color-coded and by each respective shortcut to the Lion hangars appear from the floor, but Jordan wasn't really paying much attention to that detail.

Right after the display panels lit up, the foundation that the castle/ship was set on jolted, followed by muffled sounds of a landslide. Blue was practically buzzing in the back of his head with apprehensive excitement.

They were leaving Arus to go free the Balmera…and head off even further away from Earth at the same time.

The sky faded to black in not even a minute, the low humming sound that had been echoing through the castle and felt through the floor quieting somewhat. Eva stepped up to one of the panels, looking closely at the screen, and after a momentary hesitation, Jordan went to stand next to her.

The first time he'd been in space had been in the Avatar's ship on the way to Alwas. All Jordan could remember of it was that he'd passed out almost immediately, and only woke up after they'd gotten there. So it really hadn't been a very memorable occurrence.

The second time had been the five of them in the Red Lion, and there had been too much happening in too short a time for him to focus on anything aside from their immediate actions at the time.

The third had been him, Shiro, and Koji in the Green Lion going to infiltrate Sendak's ship to rescue Blue; he'd been pretty single-minded in getting to and from solid ground then.

The fourth and fifth time had been to and from the Balmera with Coran in the shuttle. Jordan had been too worried about Stan to even _think_ about stopping to look around.

This sixth time, he actually looked around. He'd known that space was…well, _big_ , but that detail hadn't quite hit home until they'd found how far Arus was from Earth. The view now only reinforced that, featuring nothing but inky darkness and specks of light that were stars. "Some view," he muttered to himself.

Allura stepped back from the pedestal, saying, "We should reach the Balmera within half a varga."

"What exactly is going to happen when we get there?" Stan asked.

"We'll work on that as we go," Shiro replied. "In the meantime, make sure you're ready for when we do get there."

That probably meant having their flight-suits and bayards. _And maybe I can get a few minutes of target practice in while I'm at it,_ Jordan thought. Then something occurred to him. "Hey, um…"

He caught himself about to say _Molly_ , stopping at the last second, but she looked sideways at him anyways. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering if—before we get to the Balmera, maybe we could…" He paused, his confidence flagging abruptly, along with remembering something: they didn't know how her bayard actually worked yet. "I don't know, look around the ship a bit more?"

"Um…sure," was the slow response. "Where should we start?"

* * *

It was a little weird, how those two could go from bouncing off of each other perfectly to not knowing how to talk to each other within minutes sometimes.

Then again, there was more than enough reason for Eva to be nervous around them for now—and the matter of _Eva_ was one of the things Stan was still having a little trouble wrapping his head around; he'd just learned more about their second star-racer pilot in one morning than he had in over the course of a _week_.

The other thing was that he'd apparently been out for just over a day, after taking the brunt of an explosion that had shattered the castle's original power-crystal. At the most, he could remember a sort of blur after talking to Coran, before waking up in the infirmary feeling absolutely freezing.

"You could go with them, you know," Shiro suggested.

"Maybe some other time," Stan replied after a short pause—Shiro had a point there, but something about that thought was still daunting.

Part three to the dazedness was the sheer happiness from Yellow that had struck him two seconds after he'd computed what Koji had told the others. (He distinctly remembered Koji having promised to never, _ever_ tell anyone about that.)

Stan had a feeling that he wouldn't know about everything that happened during the time he was literally out cold, but it was pretty obvious that all of it had been serious.

For one, Jordan had seemed anxious when talking about the Balmerans. He hadn't looked it at all, but some subconscious part of Stan had picked up on it. Barely, but still. If he had to guess, it was the freaky mind-link at work.

For a second, he'd just learned more about their team's second star-racer pilot in one morning than he had in over a week, most notably the detail of her name _not_ being Molly.

He had a few ideas as to why she'd gone on like that, but he was going to wait until he knew more before making a definite conclusion.

For a third…he glanced around the room, and realized that there were actually _three_ less people in the room than before. Shiro looked around as well, blinking, before asking, "Does Koji do that a lot?"

"Not really." _Just when he doesn't want to be around anyone._

"If I had to guess, he's off to work on that secret project some more," Coran supplied.

 _Project?_ There were a few things Stan could think of that would classify as that, the hyperdrive prototype being one of them—but Koji wasn't in the shuttle hangar when he went to check.

An assortment of small tools were scattered on the floor near the _Arrow_ , specifically by Eva's rocket-seat, which suggested that she'd made an attempt on finding the right ones to help her put it back in earlier.

His room was also vacant, which left Stan at a loss. _Where else would he be?_ Before he could put any further thought into it, yet another new alarm started echoing through the halls, and he stifled an irritated groan before turning back toward the bridge.

He made it back there in time to catch the end of Allura saying what it was—something about a ship that lost power somewhere nearby, and that they were changing course to help them. _"Wait, what about the Balmera?"_ Jordan asked.

"The Paladin Code states that we must help anyone who needs it," was her response, which earned a few irritated sputters that ended with a resigned groan, after Stan dimly heard Molly ( _Eva_ , dang it) say something to him. "Jordan, Eva, Koji, meet us by the main lift. Make sure you're suited up."

* * *

The main lift looked nothing like the other elevators, though that was because it wasn't an elevator at all. It made sense for there to be a second exit to the castle, considering that the main doorway was some hundred meters away from the ground now.

When the doors slid open, they were greeted with the sight of two gobsmacked aliens and one robot. One of the former, purple-skinned and donning a hat that looked like something out of an aviation museum back on Earth, grinned after a few startled seconds, saying "Nice ship."

Like the _official_ initial encounter with the Arusians, Allura took the lead. "I am Princess Allura of Altea, and these are the Paladins of Voltron," she introduced. "We've come to assist you in any way we can."

"Good to hear. I'm Rolo." He gestured to the second alien—tall and yellow-skinned with purple eyes, who waved a bit. "This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit here is Beezer." The robot beeped a few times, the ear-like parts on top of it waving slightly. "You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces. Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who's on the run from the Galra."

"You're fighting the Galra too?" Shiro asked, side-eying the blocky-looking ship. He wasn't complaining—that anyone else was fighting against the Galra _at all_ was a good sign.

"Well, not directly. I doubt Zarkon's quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can."

"So what happened to you guys?" Stan sounded perplexed. "Your ship _looks_ okay."

Rolo grimaced in response. "The thermal pipe cracked. Roasted almost the entire flaxum assembly. We were able to limp to this moon 'bout a movement ago—we were starting to lose hope that anyone friendly would come by."

"I'm sure we have at least some of the things you need," Allura said. "Do you have a list of what exactly needs to be replaced?" In response, Beezer produced what, in all honesty, looked like a receipt. Stan took it after a few seconds, scowling a little before muttering something about Coran probably being able to make sense of whatever was on it and heading back to the lift.

"Hang on a tick," Rolo said, jogging over to him. "We'll go with you. You shouldn't have to carry all of that by yourself. C'mon guys."

"Then I'm going too," Jordan put in, an edge in his tone. Before Shiro could say anything about that, he clarified "Last time we let someone we barely knew in, a bomb got set off and one of us almost got killed." To the side, the others flinched a little, Koji moreso.

It was Shiro's turn to grimace then, partially at himself for not having thought of that earlier and partially at Jordan's choice of words, but only for a moment. "We can all go, then."

"There's no fault in being cautious," Nyma said dismissively. "It's every team for themselves out here."

"How come you're all the way out here, anyway?" Eva asked once they were back in the castle.

"I could ask you the same, squirt," Rolo remarked good-naturedly, and she scowled a little at the name.

"I'm pretty sure our story's longer," Jordan deflected.

Rolo glanced sideways at him before saying, "My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive. Happened a few phoebs ago."

Allura momentarily paused. "Which planet?"

"Drios-10. Was on the smaller end of the scale, and it was kind of a backwater, but it's a backwater I miss. I managed to escape, but not without losing something." He tapped his right knee, and Shiro heard a metallic sound.

"I know how that feels," he said sympathetically, clenching his prosthetic's fist so that the mechanism of it could be heard.

"Anduel's been under the Empire's boot since before I was born," Nyma said. "I took off the first chance I got, and met Rolo not too long after that. It's not easy, but we get by."

They reached the supply room quickly enough, which was lined with multiple crates filled with various mechanical parts. "So what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces?" Allura pressed. "Where are they concentrated?"

Rolo looked toward the ceiling. "His command ship sits right in the center of it all. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do all the work—which commander it is depends on _where_ the work is. This is the territory of a nasty bugger named Sendak."

"We've met," was Jordan's toneless remark, coinciding with a muttered " _Nasty_ 's an understatement," from Eva.

"How far are we from the center of it?" Shiro asked.

"There's several dozen galaxies between here and there," Nyma replied.

"Several _dozen_ ," Stan repeated flatly, eyes wide.

"And counting."

"You guys aren't the only ones, right?" Eva sounded hesitant in asking. "I mean—the only other rebels, I mean."

"There's a few groups here and there, but the most they can do is guerrilla raids. We used to run with Olia's group, but split off not too long ago. Olia's is probably the most organized out of them. Aside from the groups, it's just anyone that hasn't been colonized yet."

* * *

There was nothing quite like having an already-abysmal situation being put further into perspective. The upside to it was that it wasn't just the seven of them out there, and that Koji now knew where all the mechanical parts were kept in the castle.

It'd be useful for when there was free time to get started on the _Arrow_ 's repairs, or for finishing that cloaking function he'd been trying to figure out for Green.

He felt like he should be helping the others find the parts on the list Beezer had provided, but the storeroom was pretty small for the ten of them—

"You're awfully quiet." Koji started at hearing Nyma right next to him, scrambling a bit to the side. She put her hands up a little. "Didn't mean to scare you there. What's your name, anyways?"

"Uh, Koji."

She nodded before continuing with, "Koji, got it. So what did the princess mean by calling you guys _paladins_ before, anyways?"

So much for this going without a hitch. "I think the title's more of a formality," he replied carefully.

"Well, what about Voltron? What's that?"

"I'm…not actually sure, but I think it has to do with the Lions."

She quirked one brow. "Lions?"

"They're—they're ships."

She blinked, looking even more curious now, and he resisted the urge to smack himself for saying that much. "Can I see them?"

He bit his lip slightly. This was quickly going past the timeframe which he could keep a steady conversation with someone he barely knew, but Green seemed okay with this. "Well…"

"There's a magnetic spring not too far from here," Nyma went on. "Have you ever seen one of those?"

"No," Koji replied, his own curiosity now piqued. "What's that?"

"It's a deposit of metals that's kept in a liquid form because of certain magnetic fields. No one's really sure what causes them, though."

…that actually _did_ sound interesting. A glance toward the others showed that the movable bin was almost filled (since when?) now, and that the others were engrossed in trying to detach a pipe-like object from a tangle of other parts in a way that wouldn't bring the whole pile down.

 _Eva could help Stan with the ship's repairs,_ he thought after mulling it over a little. Besides, Nyma said it wasn't too far from here. _Maybe we could be there and back before anyone noticed._

The time it took to get there did not match up with the amount of ground Green passed over, but to be fair, Green was flying pretty fast, slowing only when they got near the spring. Nyma had looked pretty floored at seeing Green, which had resulted in the Lion radiating smugness.

At first it looked just like a stretch of reflective ground, until Nyma kicked a rock into it, which sent ripples all across the surface. "There's at least a dozen metals in there," Koji listed off aloud, reading the list that his gauntlet's computer provided. "It's mostly chromium, but that doesn't make any sense, because this is all at room-temperature and that has a melting point of over three-thousand degrees. This shouldn't be anywhere _near_ being in a liquid state."

He had a few vague ideas on how it was being kept from solidifying, but he didn't get a chance to actually put any thought to them, because the next he knew he'd been shoved to the side into the tree he was crouched next to, hard and fast enough for everything to go dark for a short time.

The next thing he knew, he was staring up at the tree's branches while strongly regretting not having taken the suit's helmet with him.

Nyma was nowhere to be seen—and Green was gone.

Green was gone and there was a furious sort of panic emanating from her that was a clear-enough sign in itself on _why_ both she and Nyma were gone.

* * *

It felt almost surreal, in two different ways—the first of which being that the planet (correction, _moon_ ) they were on was nothing like Earth, Alwas, or Arus, in that it was really just purple-hued soil everywhere, large rock formations, and solitary pale-gray trees here and there.

The second was that Eva was having to get used to hearing her actual name from the others. Sure, there were stutters here and there from almost everyone, but it was just weird.

Really, really, _really weird_.

At the same time, she felt like a huge weight had been taken off of her. Confusion aside, they'd been okay with it. And no one had asked about her dad yet, which was nice. (Or about her mom—and _that_ intangible knife was quickly put away before it could leave any cuts.)

"You guys ever work with one of these before?" Rolo asked after opening the large panel in the side of his and Nyma's ship.

"Aside from right now, no," Stan replied, after a moment of looking something close to confused. "It doesn't look too different from what I'm used to, though."

"Cool. Shout if you need any help with it."

The flaxum assembly was a whole mess's worth of parts, a good portion of them being rusted. Despite the design differences and the detail of it being a lot bigger than what she really knew how to work with, Eva recognized the general layout of it after a few minutes' worth of watching. "Hey, um, Stan?" she spoke up after a little while. "Is there anything I can help with?"

There was a pause before he came out from under the reactor. "Think you'd be able to reach the switch under there?" He sounded almost sheepish before adding, "There's no way I'm gonna be able to get to it."

"Just gimme a second," she replied, slipping under the machinery. Stan hadn't been kidding—the lever for releasing the pipe was in a space just barely wide enough for her arm, and it took a bit for her to get a good grip on it. Once pulled, the old pipe dropped to the ground. Putting the new one in was easier, at least.

It was as Eva was standing up that she noticed that the old pipe, apart from a small fracture on one side, looked otherwise fine.

"Too many light-years on it, I guess," was Rolo's response to her mentioning it to him. "I think this rig's just about ready for a test flight now." He closed the panel and jogged over to the hatch leading into the ship. "Beezer, come co-pilot for me."

Then they were off, faster than a ship of that shape should've been able to move from a standstill, and the gust from it moving almost took Eva off of her feet. "What, not even a thanks?" Jordan grumbled.

Shiro turned toward them after a moment. "Stan, is something wrong?"

"I don't get it," was the muttered reply while he turned the old pipe over in his hands a few times, frowning. "This thing looks fine. I mean, there's a small crack right there, but I really don't think that's big enough to cause any real issues."

"Maybe they were just playing it safe." A pause. "Wait, did Koji come back out here with us?"

"And where's that other girl?" Jordan asked, having spun in a quick circle. "I don't think she came back out either."

 _I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this,_ Eva thought at seeing that Jordan was right. Then she stumbled, blinking at the sudden _fury_ rolling off of Red's presence in the back of her head. To the side, she saw Stan jump a bit, and Jordan stopped mid-word in whatever he'd been saying to Shiro.

Eva frowned a little at nothing in particular. "Red, what's—" she started, only to be cut off by a series of images flashing across her vision: Rolo, Nyma, Beezer; their ship racing off; the Green Lion; the open expanse of space above them.

Shiro stood up straighter, putting his helmet on. "Coran, can you pinpoint where Koji is?"

 _"Just a tick…he's a few leagues to the west of us."_

"And the Green Lion?"

There was a pause, broken by Coran coughing forcibly. _"Well, she's—she's not on the moon, that's for sure."_

" _I knew it_!" Jordan exploded, already turning toward the lift.

"Everyone, to your Lions," Shiro ordered, tone slipping into the no-nonsense one he'd used when they'd infiltrated Sendak's ship. "Princess, could you go get Koji?"

"I was already planning to," she replied. "Contact us when you've retrieved the Green Lion."

They made use of the shortcuts to the Lions' hangars from the bridge this time, and Red was lunging upwards before Eva even had a chance to move the handles herself.

 _"I_ knew _something seemed weird about all of that,"_ Stan was going on angrily. _"When Rolo said the assembly was roasted, I figured almost_ everything _would have to get replaced, not just the pipe! That whole reactor should've been toast!"_

"I think we get it," Eva interjected as the others fell into place on either side of her. Red's HUD displayed a path on which direction to go, up until they reached an asteroid field. While Red stopped in place along with Black and Blue, Yellow kept going forward, hitting one of the reddish-colored rocks. _"Whoa, Stan, you okay?"_ Jordan asked, startled.

 _"I'm fine,"_ was the grunted response. _"Just spaced out for a sec."_ Eva's eyes narrowed a little—Stan wasn't really one to _space out_ like that.

The Blue Lion turned its head to look toward the asteroid field, in time to see the one Yellow had hit collide with another one, leaving a dent in it. _"I'm not going in there,"_ was the deadpanned remark given.

 _"Then how are we going to catch 'em?"_

 _"Eva, the Red Lion would have the easiest time getting through there,"_ Shiro said after a moment. _"Get in there and flush them out."_

"I'm on it," she affirmed, and Red charged in. The narrow pathway she was first faced with was reminiscent of the racetrack on Alwas, with the one gigantic difference being that obstacles could come from anywhere—but that was where Red's design proved itself in terms of adaptability, being able to jump off of smaller ones to change direction quickly. Rolo's ship came into sight soon after the field opened up, signified by them shooting at Red.

A few rolls both clockwise and counter-clockwise were more than enough to avoid them, but right as Eva thought she'd caught up to them, the ship banked to the side and she had to slam the brakes to avoid running into an asteroid, before banking sharply upwards, Red running on the surface of the rock, claws digging into the surface for traction.

Eva had felt sympathetic for them earlier, at hearing what they'd gone through, and this was how they repaid that? By conning them like this?

She tightened her grip on the controls, and fired a shot of her own. It hit squarely on the engine they'd "fixed," causing it to burst into short-lived flames, and the ship slowed to a stop.

Red obligingly opened up a comm link. "You can give Green back anytime now, y'know," Eva said flatly. Rolo and Nyma both grimaced in response.

* * *

It had taken a few minutes for them to drag the _now-actually-broken_ ship back to the moon they'd originally been on. Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer came out shortly after Red let the ship down by the castle.

Koji didn't waste any time in going in to get the Green Lion, shooting a look that was nothing short of venomous at Nyma when he walked by her. She'd glanced off to the side in response.

"We help you, and you try robbing us," Jordan said, arms crossed and tone dripping with sarcasm. "Seriously, that's a _great_ first impression."

Nyma scowled at him. "Look kid, like I said earlier, it's everyone for themselves out here."

"Bullshit," he spat. "You were gonna hand Green over to the Galra, weren't you?" They both flinched, not denying it. "Huh. Thought so."

"Watch it runt," Rolo growled. "We saw an opportunity, and we took it. This one Galra commander, Prorok, put out a pretty hefty bounty on all five of you."

Jordan sputtered a bit, ready to make another retort, before his brain processed what Rolo had just said. Eva and Stan both looked up sharply, and Shiro's eyes darkened. "Define _hefty_ ," he said evenly.

"About fifty-thousand GAC each. Almost triple that for the Black Lion—and the other four are doubled if their pilots are included."

The amount of sense made by the detail of the aliens they were fighting considering them criminals was alarming, when it shouldn't have been at all.

Allura, who had been watching the exchange stoically, looked up at seeing the Green Lion fly overhead toward its hangar, before saying, "Thank you for this information. We can leave you with some parts to repair your ship, but that will be all we can do."

 _Why help them more at all?_ Eva asked that very question—she used a different wording, but it was the same general idea.

"Desperation can lead one to do things they normally wouldn't," was Allura's response when they were out of earshot. "Despite what just occurred, I don't think those two meant any ill-will toward us. If they had, I doubt they would have left Koji behind." Eva looked uncertain at the response, while Stan's expression darkened.

Jordan stayed quiet until he, Shiro, and Allura reached the bridge; the other two meandered off toward the shuttle hangar instead.

"Do you really think that's true?" he asked Shiro after mulling it over some more, keeping his voice down so that Allura and Coran wouldn't hear.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Honestly? I'm not sure." He paused, before adding, "The princess had a point, though. I can name a few dozen things that happened on Earth that reflect that." Jordan looked at him, then at the viewscreens at the front of the bridge.

He wasn't wrong, and neither was Allura.

* * *

The upside to all of it was that Stan knew where all the spare mechanical parts were kept. He'd stopped by there to grab a few things that might work with the _Arrow_ after some modifications, before heading to the hangar bay.

The current object of his attention was a module that he'd taken apart after a few minutes of figuring out which tool worked best as a wrench. It was similar to the one that he and Koji had modified and put onto one of the shuttles, and would eventually be part of the _Arrow_ 's new hyperdrive.

The sound of the door opening had him glance over his shoulder from where he was sitting on the floor, and Eva stopped mid-step at seeing him look. "Eva? You need something?" he asked, putting the wrench down.

"N-Not really. I mean—" She hesitated, before asking a question of her own. "Um…what're you doing?"

Stan looked sideways at her for a few seconds, and then back at the module. "Trying to reconfigure this so we can use it for the repairs."

"Can I help?"

"Well…" It was Stan's turn to pause there—Yellow's presence became a little more noticeable, coinciding with Stan abruptly remembering Eva asking that same question before, day-one on Alwas, though then it had been referring to prepping the _Arrow I_ for the first (and only/disaster of a) race.

Now that he was thinking back on it, she'd looked really downcast at hearing he and Koji had it handled.

"I don't see why not," he said finally, and the split-second of disappointment on her face that was replaced by bewildered surprise wasn't lost on him.

"Is this going to be for the hyperdrive?" she queried after a minute. He nodded, before remembering that he'd meant to ask something.

"Did something happen yesterday? Koji doesn't usually avoid everyone like this. Or do stuff like earlier." The second part was added as an afterthought.

He wasn't going to deny that Koji could be a little _too_ trusting sometimes, but he also generally knew when things were starting to go bad. So the near-robbery was a little strange.

"No. Well, I mean…" For a few seconds, Eva's gaze wandered off to the side, biting her lips lightly, before she finished, "He didn't tell any of us about that burn he got shorting out the castle's engine."

Static for a few seconds. "What burn?"

The words came out a little sharper than Stan had intended, and she flinched a little before pointing to two places on her arm. "It went from here to there. It's bandaged up now, but it—it looked like it hurt."

That settled it: something was wrong here, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. "Where is he, anyways?"

"Well, I think he's in Green's hangar, but—h-hold on a second!"

Stan had made it halfway to the doorway before she'd raised her voice a bit, though she seemed to shrink a little when he turned to look at her again.

Despite the fact that his thoughts were pretty focused on the detail of something _obviously_ _not being right_ with Koji right now, what bits and pieces he knew about Eva's general personality was that she wasn't exactly the _nervous_ type; it was just enough to evenly divide his attention.

"Are you okay?" he asked cautiously, watching her carefully. Eva looked up at him briefly, before her attention was off the side again.

Then, after a deep breath, she got out, "I'm—I'm fine, but—a-are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah," he replied slowly. "Why?"

"You don't usually space out like you did earlier." He almost didn't hear her that time.

"That was nothing," he dismissed lightly. "I'm just a bit tired." Her concern was a little off-putting, if he had to be honest with himself…at least, until Yellow gave a small concerned rumble of his own, sending a very specific impression of someone.

The last person any of them saw badly injured had been Rick, after his accident.

Which, coincidentally, had been _explosion-related_ , and given that they'd found almost too late that Rick hadn't been as fine as the doctors on Alwas had thought, it almost made _too much_ sense for Eva to be worried.

How the hell hadn't he figured that out earlier?

"Hey, it'll take more than something blowing up in my face to put me down," he joked, only to have to suppress a flinch at the thorough _exasperation_ from Yellow.

Then he noticed Eva's borderline-horrified expression, faltering a bit. _Okay, maybe that wasn't the best thing to say._ "But, uh, considering I was out for a day, that's normal."

She didn't reply, and Stan winced inwardly. He was pretty sure he had a new understanding for how Jordan felt now.

"Do you know which way Green's hangar is from here?" he asked, deciding on changing the subject. "I'd rather find Koji _before_ we get to the Balmera." And maybe check if Coran had gotten some of that space-coffee. He'd probably need that.

* * *

They were still a good ten minutes away from the Balmera, but Allura had told them to keep their flight-suits on, so Koji hadn't bothered leaving Green's hangar. Instead, he'd gone right to the desk he'd managed to drag into the hangar from one of the empty rooms nearby to grab his tablet.

The first ordeal had been adding new lines of coding to the device so that it would display Altean—of which included more than _eighty_ symbols. That had taken up most of yesterday.

The second had been to put together an adapter so that he could charge his tablet off of the castle's power. Figuring out how to wire it, and then testing it in a way that wouldn't accidentally fry the device had taken most of the night.

The third part was copying the data for the cloaking function into a blank file, which had taken less than five minutes, surprisingly—binary code was apparently a universal constant, alongside USB ports.

And that left the third and final part: accessing Green's shielding systems. Given how easy the third part had been, Koji really should've expected this last one to be a whole new caliber of headache.

"I thought you liked this idea," he complained, looking up at Green from where he was sitting by one of her claws.

It was a friendly reminder on just how _big_ the Lions were, even the smaller two. Standing up, he still wouldn't be able to reach the top of her paw.

She didn't show any response, but he wasn't really surprised by that, given the blunder that happened earlier. Actually, _blunder_ was putting it nicely. In reality it was probably his biggest screw-up so far, ranking second only to—

He shook his head quickly, before looking at the list of access points on the screen. They all looked the same (a lot of Altean letters looked annoyingly similar to each other) to him, and Green was staunchly refusing to give him any hints.

But then again, the Lion had every single right to be angry at him, because him screwing up like that had almost gotten her stolen.

Koji paused, glancing over to the console set into the wall on one end of the hangar. If how it had just lit up was any indicator, it was the first access point in the list. _Maybe the second one?_ A few seconds later, though he wasn't too sure, he was thinking yes.

If only because he'd immediately been faced with an error screen.

Maybe that was for the better. For all he knew, he could easily render Green's shield inoperable by mistake if he tried messing with anything. Sure, he could list off every feature of the programming that had gone into the _Arrow_ 's sensor systems on memory alone, and _maybe_ he'd been entertaining the idea of a remote piloting system for the star-racer, but apart from that, he was just a mechanic.

Definitely not a pilot for a ten-thousand-year-old sentient robotic lion.

Koji felt something nudge him not-quite-gently from behind, and he glanced over his shoulder. Then he jumped almost two feet straight up when he found himself face-to-face with Green. He hadn't heard her move—heck, he hadn't even _known_ she could move by herself! (Wait, no. Red moved by himself on Alwas.)

"So you're…not mad or anything?" he asked hesitantly.

The purr that came in response was tinged with reassurance. She was equally at fault in not being cautious enough. _So, we both screwed up._

The reassurance shifted into something more like an awkward laugh, like it was karma getting back at her, along with a vague impression of the Blue Lion. Otherwise implying that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

Green also seemed to be trying to convey the idea of more screw-ups being unfortunately likely, and that was unfortunately a good point. Though the chances of any future ones being as bad as what happened to—

Koji stopped that thought before it could finish.

At the same time, there was a crackling sound from the intercom system, right before he heard Allura: _"Everyone to the bridge, please. We're approaching the Balmera."_

He hissed out a breath, looking at the tablet screen again. "Could you at least tell me how to get through this?" he asked, gesturing at the device.

Green purred in response, and the error message was promptly replaced by a screen of coding.

"…you were doing that on purpose, weren't you."


	10. Equilibrium

The ending scene is meant to be purely platonic, given the backstory I have in mind for the two involved. (It was also an absolute monster to write, given that it was my first time writing something like that.)

* * *

 **Arc I: Race's End**

 **Equilibrium**

If there was one thing Shiro and Black could definitely agree on at this moment in time, it was that the apparent ease in which Molly had given them the detail of her name actually being _Eva_ was impressive.

Eva had also stated that her father was their racing team's manager.

That was another bell ringing in the back of his head—specifically their surname—but whatever it was stubbornly kept slipping away.

He still had some questions, but he decided that the best course of action here would be to wait for her to open up more to them. (Trying to force a conversation with Keith had never ended well, and Eva reminded Shiro of Keith. They might get along, if they ever met.)

"So that's the Balmera?" Stan asked, looking ahead at the front viewscreen. He and Eva had come up to Shiro's right shortly after Allura had called them all to the bridge. Jordan was standing rigidly to the left.

"Yes," Allura replied, glaring up at the 3D model of the Balmera that was hovering about a foot in front of her, expanded for them all to see easily. There were multiple red blips all over it. "And there's a considerable amount of Galra there. Much more than what we faced on Arus." She looked over her shoulder when the door opened, and Shiro followed her gaze. Koji stopped for a second, looking a little sheepish; it had been a few minutes since Allura had called them all there.

"There were a lot in the tunnels, too," Jordan noted. "How come they aren't showing up on that?"

The Altean frowned in response. "The castle's scanners aren't fully operational right now, and cannot detect anything beneath the Balmera's shell. We _could_ make use of the biothermal sensors, but one of you would have to distribute them throughout the various mine shafts."

"Bio… _what_?" Eva asked, sounding lost.

"The full term for it is biothermal life-indicator point technology," Coran supplied. "Blip-tech for short! Your suits have smaller versions of them built in. It's also how we can keep track of where you are and how you're doing from here in the castle."

"Sounds like a plan," Shiro said, nodding. The question now would be who would be the one to play dropship. He knew with some certainty that Eva wouldn't like it, given how she'd reacted to being a decoy so they could infiltrate Sendak's ship to retrieve the Blue Lion.

Jordan still had a long way to go, both in skill and confidence when it came to piloting, and the Yellow Lion would be too noticeable for Stan to pull it off without drawing too much attention.

Like Allura had said before, this was their first big mission. They would need the guidance, which meant it couldn't be Shiro. And that left…

"I can do it," Koji offered. "I, uh—the thing I was working on was a cloaking modification for the Green Lion. I based it on the maze's."

"Figures you'd find a way to turn that around," Stan commented, grinning. It faltered when Koji looked away, tensing as he did.

Shiro tore his gaze away from them and back to the display of the Balmera. "Alright then. Is everyone ready?" Four assenting responses were given, and they each went to the respective lift, though Koji hesitated at the Green Lion's. Remembering the last time he'd used it, Shiro suggested, "Try putting one arm up over the bar. That should help."

Koji blinked once, twice, before trying to smile. "Thanks. I'll—I'll try that," he got out, before vanishing through the doorway.

To the side, Shiro saw Coran's brow furrow slightly before giving him a questioning look, to which Shiro could only shrug at. They'd have to wait for him to want to talk about it, too.

"Remember, the Balmera is a living creature," he stated once the seat was pulled into place in Black's cockpit, and the displays had come up. Ahead, the lights lining the edges of the launch tunnel came on. "Target the mining operations, and nothing else."

 _"Yes sir!"_ Jordan replied, a little louder than necessary, while Eva said _"I think that part was a little obvious."_

Moments later the Black Lion shot forwards, she and her companions diving through the clouds. Before they could break through the last layer, the Green Lion shimmered before vanishing, leaving barely a ripple in the air.

The Red and Blue Lions immediately banked off to one side. While Red drew the fire of a trio of watch-towers with a flyby, Blue shot multiple laser rounds at them, leaving them smoking.

Black highlighted a large structure off to one side, with streams of electricity arcing from what looked like a much-larger version of a battlecruiser's generator. _"That thing looks important,"_ Stan noted.

"All the more reason to take it out," Shiro agreed. _But how?_

The response came from his Lion instantly, in the form of a monitor appearing over the left console. "Jaw-blade?" he mused, and Black elaborated with a few impressions. "Let's try it."

* * *

The series of explosions that lined both sides of the generator building were pretty satisfying to see, in Jordan's opinion. So were the many sentry-towers that were now blown to pieces, courtesy of him and Eva.

What _wasn't_ satisfying was how fast it was followed by a plethora of fighters practically exploding out of one of the mine shafts.

Blue rolled off to the side for what felt like the hundredth time now, Jordan repeatedly hitting the trigger and causing a few more fighters to go up in fireballs, and he braced himself against the console when Blue took a hit to the back.

He was under the assumption that he was settling into the whole Lion-Paladin bond thing Allura and Coran had both been talking about, because Jordan could practically feel every single hit Blue was taking like it was _him_ being hit.

 _"I think we got this one pretty smashed-up. Should we hit the next one?"_ Eva said after managing to have the trio of fighters that had been tailing the Red Lion crash into the one remaining watch-tower.

They both winced when it slammed into the Balmera's surface—it wasn't the first time that had happened, and it probably wouldn't be the last at this rate. _The sooner we get these assholes off of it, the better-off everyone else here will be._

 _"Sounds good,"_ Shiro approved. _"You two hit the one to the west. Stan and I will take the one to the north."_

"And that sounds good to me," Jordan replied with a smirk, Blue turning to race towards the next encampment in the distance, Red following. "Whoever takes out the most towers wins…oh boy." His voice dropped into a nervous mutter, gulping at the end—there were too many red dots on the viewscreen to make any sense of, but the fact that it looked like a literal wall meant it was _a lot_. "On second thought, let's take care of the tin-cans first!"

Blue's tail arced up over her head, Red doing the same, both picking off fighters one-by-one, before having to duck down and fly underneath the swarm before coming back up and turning around to repeat the action.

A small twinge of uncertainty that definitely hadn't been his or Blue's briefly flickered in Jordan's head, prompting him to add, "Hey, at least these are just robots."

 _"Y-Yeah,"_ was the short response from Eva.

A sudden flare of alarm from Blue prompted to Jordan to look up, just in time to see a _second_ group of Galra, numbering only about seven or so, bearing down on them from above, and he shouted a warning.

The Red Lion turned, angling upwards, but it was only in time to take multiple shots to the face. Red crashed to the ground seconds later, blue-hued electricity sparking across it. "Molly!" Jordan shouted on impulse, Blue pivoting in place automatically to race towards her.

Blue had reluctantly admitted that she couldn't fire nearly as fast as the _Arrow_ 's turret, even though the seven topside ones had all gone up in flame pretty fast. The main swarm was zeroed in on Red, which still hadn't budged from where it went down.

Had the impact knocked her out? Could the _Lions_ be knocked out? Jordan had no way of knowing right now. Right now, his focus was entirely on the enemy ahead. With a roar of defiance that came from both of them, he squeezed the trigger—and right as he did, he had a sudden awareness of something being _different_.

Maybe it was the way Blue purred the split-second before, or the whirring sound that echoed in the cockpit as the Lion charged up the shot, or how for a second Jordan felt like the temperature in the cockpit had plunged into the subzero range.

Blue fired, and the entire swarm froze solid in an instant.

The Red Lion came up into the air as the many chunks of ice fell to the ground, shattering on impact. _"Jordan, how did you do that?"_ Eva asked, a monitor displaying Red's interior appearing.

"I don't know," he answered truthfully. "You okay?"

She nodded. _"Just got a bit shaken up."_

Jordan nodded, glancing down at the many chunks of ice that had shattered against the Balmera's surface, hoping it hadn't felt those too much. Then something occurred to him. "I guess this makes us fire and ice, huh?"

Eva blinked, before grinning. _"I guess it does! Now c'mon—let's finish up here so we can go see how Shiro and Stan are holding out!"_

* * *

The short answer to an earlier question was _yes_ ; the Lions could indeed materializing things out of seemingly nowhere, though Yellow had clarified that it was sort of how the bayards worked.

He'd denied it being Koji's theory of molecular-level storage, though. Thinking of whom: _"All sensors delivered,"_ he reported, the Green Lion flickering back into view when it got closer to the two of them.

At the same time, the Red and Blue Lions came up from the left. _"Okay, I_ really _feel like there should've been more of them out here,"_ Jordan said.

 _"There's a large hangar full of fighters just below the surface,"_ Allura clarified. _"There's at least twice the amount than you all just fought in there."_

 _"Why aren't they coming up here, though?"_ Eva asked.

 _"They're luring us down,"_ was Shiro's brief response. _"But we don't have a choice here; we're going to have to go on foot. Jordan, Eva, you go set Shay and the other Balmerans free. Stan, Koji, make sure those fighters don't leave that hangar. I'll look for the sentries."_

 _"Wait, by yourself?"_ Jordan asked.

 _"I'll be fine. You all stay alert while you're down there."_

"Sounds good," Stan affirmed, the Yellow Lion turning towards the nearest mine shaft. At least, he figured it was a mine shaft.

The idea that the Balmera was actually a living thing was baffling, but the fact that it was treated like it wasn't by its current occupants did not sit right with him at all.

In a weird way, it reminded him of the time Muffin had been infested with fleas, but if what Coran had said about the Balmera's condition right now was anything to go on, this was a _lot_ worse.

The shaft was pitch-black, with steel support beams only being visible when the Lion was a few meters away from them, visible only as lighter flashes as Yellow and Green whisked by them, before both came to a stop right before hitting the ground.

Stan looked at the map of the Balmera's interior for a few seconds. "Any idea on how we can get to that hangar without it taking an hour? Because it'll take an hour if we have to walk there."

 _"You could make use of the speeders your Lions have,"_ Coran suggested.

 _"The_ what _?"_

 _"You know, the vehicles that you take to get to the Lions' hangars from the bridge?"_ He sounded almost puzzled in clarifying that.

…well, that really should've been obvious. The controls for the speeder looked a lot like that of a vehicle on Earth, so Stan had a general idea of how it worked. Like its name suggested, it moved pretty fast—they reached near where the hangar was in minutes.

"I thought there would be a few more guards here," Koji muttered, looking around at the space below the ledge they were on. "I only see nine of them."

Stan gave a neutral sound in response, looking sideways at him. "Hey Koji?" Koji started a little, glancing back at him. "Seriously, I'm not mad about you slipping the engine-oil thing."

He didn't reply, looking away again after a few seconds, before asking "Think we could shut the hangar doors from the control room over there?" while pointing at the metal structure set into the opposing wall.

"Probably, but…" Stan trailed off when Koji started across one of the steel beams crossing the gap, eyes narrowing a little. _Okay then…_

Stan reached the end of the beam in time to see the flicker of the green bayard vanishing, and what lighting there was let him see the thin mostly-circular line cut into the steel.

Without a word, he stepped over and jumped onto the circle, which fell right through into the control room.

The metallic crunching sound that coincided with him hitting the floor signaled that there had been one very unlucky sentry in that spot. They seemed surprisingly flimsy.

"I'll watch the door," Stan offered. No response came from Koji this time either, and he frowned a little before asking, "Is this about the thing with the maze?"

Koji paused, before shaking his head a bit. "I'd rather try to get this over with as soon as possible right now," he said, the words clipped.

"Alright," Stan muttered after a few seconds of looking sideways at him while he was looking over the red holoscreen. It was all in Galran, but there was one rectangular part in the center that looked like it was for a handprint. Unfortunately, it didn't react to either of them.

 _Maybe it'll work for this thing?_ After moving the circular piece of metal off of the robot with some effort, he dragged its arm up to the screen. Sure enough, something like an alarm began sounding faintly through the walls, coinciding with the hangar doors set into the top of the cavern sliding shut.

"Hangar's taken care of," Stan reported. "And just a heads-up—if you find any locked doors, find a piece of a robot. They won't open otherwise."

 _"Thanks for the tip,"_ Jordan replied after a few seconds.

 _"Make sure that console's destroyed,"_ Shiro advised. _"We don't need them opening the hangar again."_

"Got it." It was easy enough to open the panel beneath the screen and tear a few wires out. As they were leaving the room, a loud crackling sound from behind him had Stan stop to look over his shoulder; the cause of the sound had been the scanner next to the door getting an electrified dagger stuck in it, though the detail of Koji having the bayard in his _right_ hand brought something else to mind—he might've been ambidextrous, but Koji tended to use his left hand for most things.

"So Eva said something about you having a burn earlier?" he started while they were walking.

Koji stuttered a little. "Well, uh, yeah. It's—it's not a bad one, though."

"How'd you get it, though?"

"I-It was just…me not really thinking something through."

"Which was?" Stan pressed.

That apparently crossed some unseen line, because it only got him to snap "Could you just drop it for now?" before walking a little faster. For a few seconds Stan stood there, startled, before following Koji again at a slower pace.

Maybe it was just stress of the situation. Knowing that they could come face-to-face with some hostile, armed robots any second was a pretty scary thought.

Either way, Stan was pretty sure that whatever was bothering Koji here, it had to do with everything he'd missed.

* * *

In a way, the speeder was a lot like her rocket-seat when it came to both functions and controls. The similarity to an Earth vehicle's might've been how/why Jordan wasn't having any trouble with it, too. _"Hold on a second,"_ he said suddenly, the blue speeder stopping right before the tunnel opened up into a clearing.

She hit the brakes too. "Jordan, what's wrong?" He didn't reply, instead climbing out with his bayard in hand; he fired twice, aiming up at something above the door, and a few robot pieces fell to the ground shortly after. Jordan stared up at the ledge for a few seconds, still holding the bayard.

"Jordan?" Eva said again, going to stand next to him.

"There were only two sentries up there," he said, looking sideways at her.

"And?"

" _And_ there really should've been more!" he shot back. Eva wanted to snap back at him, but something in his tone was hitting her the wrong way right now.

"Maybe we came by at the right time?" she suggested instead.

Jordan made a noncommittal sound, muttering "I've still got a bad feeling about this," while going to pick up a mostly-intact robot arm. The tunnels beyond the translucent violet door that had been on the other end of the clearing were barely lit, the only lighting coming from other, much-smaller doors.

Jordan barely paused by them, only giving each a passing glance, until there came one where he did a double-take before almost tripping over himself to open the door. The occupants' startled/wary expressions didn't last long.

"You've returned," one noted, sounding both relieved and surprised.

"I said I would," Jordan said shortly, before seeming to realize something. "H-Hang on, where's—?"

"Shay is not here," a second voice interrupted in the same tone, which brought Eva's attention to the fourth Balmeran, who had been sitting in the back and was currently glaring at both of them. "When you began your attack, the Galra imprisoned us and took her to Balmera's core," he snapped combatively. "You have brought nothing but trouble to our family!"

"Hey, we came here to _rescue_ you guys!" Eva retorted. Jordan being moody, she could put up with. Someone she didn't know? _No thanks_.

If she had to guess, this was Shay's brother; whatever he said after that was ignored in favor of Allura's voice coming over the comm. _"Paladins, it looks like the Galra are all moving down the tunnels, toward the center of the Balmera."_

If that wasn't a coincidence, Eva wasn't sure what was. "That's a trap," Jordan said immediately.

 _"You took the words right out of my mouth,"_ Shiro agreed. _"Stan, Koji, how much of that did you hear?"_

 _"Enough of it,"_ was Stan's reply. _"But shouldn't one or two of us stay back just in case?"_

Shiro exhaled quietly over the comm. _"You have a point…Eva, go back to the Red Lion."_

"What?!" she protested. "But I can help!"

 _"By keeping an eye out for any reinforcements,"_ Shiro returned calmly. _"We still don't know how your bayard works. You'd be a lot safer in your Lion."_

"Ugh, fine," she muttered. As uncomfortable as the thought was, he had a point. Louder, she added, "You guys be careful."

"Back at'cha partner," Jordan replied, turning to head further down into the Balmera, whereas Eva started back up. She'd just made it back to the speeder when the ground under her feet lurched; she'd barely managed to catch herself on the vehicle.

"What was that?" she asked after it had passed, hearing the last echoes of…something. She wasn't sure what exactly the sound had been, but whatever it had come from seemed like it was in pain.

 _"That would be the Balmera itself,"_ Coran replied, tone grim. _"Its condition is very unstable at the moment, so you'd all best watch yourselves down there."_

Eva hissed out a breath before vaulting herself into the vehicle. The Balmera—of _course_ it had been the Balmera. What else would it have been?

No wonder Jordan had seemed almost desperate to get back here.

Red was standing, waiting with his shield down when she reached the shaft he and the Blue Lion were hunkered down in, bringing the speeder back up into its place in the cargo bay with barely a pause. No sooner were they up and out of the mine shaft did the Lion jolt when something hit his back.

Eva hissed out a breath, eyes widening when she saw the new horde of fighters that were taking up most of the sky above. "Where did all of these come from?"

 _"I'm not sure, but we're taking heavy fire up here!"_ was Allura's response.

"Okay, just—just hang on!" She shoved both handles forward, and Red arced upwards toward the swarm. Several of the fighters broke away in response, heading right back toward them, forcing her to bank to the side to avoid taking shots to the face again.

The rounds instead hit the surface of the Balmera, and she suppressed a flinch before shaking her head a little, remembering what Jordan had said earlier. _C'mon Eva, they're just a bunch of robots,_ she told herself, before having Red return fire.

All four fighters went up in fireballs that she refused to look at for longer than two seconds.

From what bits and pieces she'd managed to make sense of from Coran's explanations, the castle's defense systems didn't work in a conventional way, in that the barrier was also the weapon. It could fire in any direction—so long as the shield stayed up to begin with.

She wasn't in there to see how it was holding up, but she was pretty sure that taking fire from all sides meant that it wouldn't last very long. _But how're we supposed to get rid of all of those things?_

Red's presence sharpened with a growl, and a screen appeared over the main dashboard. She bit her lip when she realized what the Lion was suggesting, before glancing further up at the viewscreens.

"They're just some dumb robots," she told herself again quietly. _It's not like they'll feel anything._

Red fired, and a wide swath of the horde was reduced to molten metal.

 _"Good shot Number Five!"_ Coran praised.

"Thanks," she muttered, fumbling a bit with the keypad before asking "Did you guys find Shay?"

 _"We did, but there's a problem with that,"_ Stan replied tersely. _"We're kind of stuck down here."_

"Well, find a way to get _un_ stuck! It's getting crazy up here ag— _aah_!" Eva broke off with a startled exclamation when a sharp-sounding alarm started going off from somewhere in the cockpit, coinciding with Red seeming tense all of a sudden.

She blinked, and almost missed the blur of motion that preceded a space in the horde of fighters suddenly being filled by a battlecruiser, with Red's displays showing that an _alarming_ amount of its weapons were already warming up, the oversized cannon included.

"Um. Quiznak?" Her voice sounded a little more high-pitched that she would've liked.

 _"Quiznak,"_ both Allura and Coran agreed.

* * *

"Eva? Eva, what's going on up there?" Shiro asked, tone sharpening with anxiety. The fact that this was probably the first time any of them heard Eva curse out loud was a good indicator on what might be going on up on the surface.

It was Allura who replied instead: _"Paladins, we need you all up here as soon as possible. There's a battlecruiser locked onto us, and the castle's particle barrier won't hold out against its ion cannon for very long."_

If _that_ just wasn't the icing on the cake, Koji wasn't sure what was.

To the side, Jordan was standing very still, jaw clenched tightly—once they'd gotten her down from where she'd been tied up and the gag off of her, Shay had told them that the Galra had known they were coming

The only other people that even knew they were _going_ this way had been Rolo and Nyma.

It took _a lot_ for Koji to actively dislike someone, but by that point his opinion of those two was pretty firmly in the negative numbers.

Stan was pacing by one of the might-be-natural stairways, whereas Shay was…well, Koji wasn't exactly sure what she was doing.

Supposedly Balmerans could send messages to each other through the Balmera itself, though how _that_ worked wasn't something that—

He was jolted out of his thoughts when there was a metallic crunching sound behind them, and a plume of dust from where one of the sealed doors _had been_ cleared to show four other Balmerans.

"Rax?" Shay sounded both relieved and incredulous, and Jordan sputtered a bit, eyes widening.

"You must make haste," one of them, presumably Rax, said in response. "There are shortcuts through these tunnels that we know of."

The term _shortcut_ seemed like an understatement; one of the other Balmerans led both him and Stan through a gap in the walls that Koji hadn't noticed on the way down there, which opened up into a passage that twisted and turned up until it led right back out to the ledge overlooking the now-closed hangar. Green lowered her shield the moment she saw him coming, itching to get up and moving.

Their focus was on the battlecruiser the moment it came into view—it didn't look as fancy as Sendak's had, but it had the same gigantic cannon set on the bow of it, which _definitely_ looked like it was getting ready to fire.

An arc of red light swept around in a wide arc, followed by a series of smaller explosions. The source was recognized as the same weapon the Red Lion had used on that monster back on Arus. Further off to the side was a flash of blue; the fighters struck by that beam were frozen solid immediately, the chunks of ice being shattered by the Black and Yellow Lions before they could hit the Balmera's surface.

A violet flare above had them look up—the castleship's shields had all been diverted to the front of the ship, but they definitely wouldn't last for long against the cannon.

 _"Guys, I have an idea!"_ Shiro shouted. _"Follow my lead!"_

Black rocketed upwards, and they followed with the other three, bracing themselves against the bottom of the front half of the hull, engines blasting at full power. Slowly but surely, the trajectory of the cannon was moved up and away from the castle, and moments after it was, the princess shouted a warning to get out of the way of…of what?

Koji managed to slow Green's descent a little, and she turned her head to look back so he could see—but he had to shut his eyes against the blinding light that emanated from a singular, narrow beam that streaked across the sky. For a few seconds, it gained a reddish hue toward one side.

Then both the sound and the shockwave hit, sending Green reeling, though she angled herself so that she wouldn't be knocked out of the air by it. The smoke was already clearing when Koji managed to pry his eyes open, and the sky was now otherwise clear.

Over the comm, someone whistled appreciatively (Jordan) while someone else (Shiro?) sighed a little, relieved. There was a stilted comment of _"Nice shot, Allura,"_ from Stan.

It _was_ a good shot, even if Koji had only been able to see it for a second, and only had a general idea on where the battlecruiser had been hit. From that split-second glance, it looked like it would've been close to the generators. Maybe an engine or two, for it to have gone up in a fireball of that size like that.

He swallowed hard, feeling lightheaded suddenly. There wasn't even any _debris_ left by the look of it, and the remaining fighters had been obliterated by the explosion.

That battlecruiser had been just like the one Sendak had on Arus, save for looking a little plainer, but there had been something left of Sendak's after they'd dealt with it. Two people had walked away from that one.

But this one…

* * *

"How's everyone doing?" Shiro asked; though he hadn't seen the Blue and Yellow Lions, both Red and Green had been sent spinning by the force of the battlecruiser's explosion.

 _"I'm alright,"_ Jordan responded, a quieter affirmative coming from Stan.

"Eva, Koji, what about you?"

 _"Um, y-yeah,"_ was the stuttered response from Eva. _"I'm—I'm okay."_

There was a pause, and Shiro frowned. "Koji?"

 _"I'm fine."_

 _"You sure?"_ Jordan asked hesitantly. _"You sound kinda out of it."_

 _"_ I'm fine _,"_ he repeated insistently. He didn't _sound_ fine. Shiro could hear it in his voice.

A sharp growl from Black yanked his attention back to their surroundings, specifically what _looked_ like a meteor, right as Coran warned _"Something just entered the atmosphere—and it has a Galran signature!"_

 _"It's gonna hit the Balmera! We have to—"_ Jordan wasn't able to finish, the object slamming into the Balmera's surface too fast for any of them to react. It kicked up a wave of dust and sent pulverized fragments of the surface in all directions. Shiro could have sworn he heard a deep, pained sound that seemed to come from the ground below them.

When the dust cleared, a familiar metal structure was seen standing upright on the surface. _"Okay, it's a big metal box,"_ Eva said. _"Why would they send a big metal box to us?_

"It's the container that the monster from Arus came in," Shiro clarified—he _thought_ he'd noticed it gone before they'd left Arus. "Everyone, just stay calm. If it's the same as the last one, we know how to deal with it."

Steam hissed out of the vents set into the top of the oversized case, before each side of it fell to the ground. Jordan cursed before saying _"That does_ not _look like the first one."_

It really didn't—bipedal and humanoid, it looked almost reptilian in some aspects. It was primarily red in color, with arms nearly the length of its body.

"Then we'll just have to— _look out_!" Black leaped to one side and Blue to the other, both narrowly evading the acid-green laser that shot from the port in the robotic creature's chest. The Yellow Lion wasn't as lucky, being sent flying back a few miles. "New plan: evasive maneuvers! It can't hit all of us at the same time!"

Roughly ten seconds later, Shiro had to eat his words when there were suddenly _multiple_ beams arcing through the sky. _"You were saying?"_ Eva asked with some false cheerfulness.

"Okay, so it _can_ hit us all at once," he admitted, rethinking it quickly while bringing the Black Lion around. "Stan, try drawing its fire—I'm coming in from above!"

 _"Just try to be quick about it,"_ was the grunted response. _"I_ really _don't want to get hit by that thing again!"_

Black angled herself into a nosedive, but she could only dive down for a few seconds before Shiro had to have her roll to one side to avoid a laser.

 _"I don't think this thing has a blind spot,"_ Koji warned. _"I think those lasers might also be its eyes."_

 _"What, so it has a hundred eyes?"_ The Red Lion somersaulted in the air above to avoid two laser beams while its pilot spoke. _"What're we supposed to do then?!"_

 _"We'll draw its fire from up here,"_ Allura replied, the castleship moving into position above the creature, raining fire from above—which did get the monster's attention, it returning fire in full.

 _"Spectral generator's gone!"_ Coran was heard reporting. _"A-And there's a fire in VIN bay three; suppressors are on! Wait, suppressors are out!"_ His voice gradually grew more panicked as he went on, ending with _"Princess, the ship is being torn apart!"_

"Allura, fall back," Shiro ordered. "The castle's defenses already took a beating earlier, and you know that as well as I do."

 _"We will_ not _abandon you,"_ she shot back.

"You're not abandoning us, we were just about to fall back."

 _"What do you mean, we're falling back?"_ Jordan protested. _"We can't just—"_

"We can't fight this thing without a plan," Shiro interrupted. The cadet paled a little over the video feed that had appeared right before he'd spoken, though he nodded in understanding after the Blue Lion had to weave out of the way of a few more lasers. "Everyone to the mine shafts—it's the only place where we'll be safe!"

Black twisted mid-air, diving into the nearest one, with the Red and Blue Lions close behind. Once on the ground, Shiro stepped out and was faced with the Balmerans from earlier. "What is happening?" Rax asked in a low, fearful tone.

"Uh, just a…a giant hundred-eyed lizard thing trying to kill us," Jordan summed up. "B-But we're gonna beat that thing so fast it won't know what hit it in the first place," he added at seeing their expressions.

 _"_ Can _we do that, though?"_ Stan sounded uncertain.

"Yes, we can," Shiro reassured. "We just need time to come up with a strategy."

Unfortunately, it seemed as though the universe was set against them—the ground bucked underfoot again, more violently than the last time, and he heard the same sound from when the robotic monster first crashed onto the Balmera. _"And can someone tell me what that even was?"_

"The Balmera," Shay clarified, voice wavering. "Her life is coming to an end, even as we speak."

Jordan blanched. "H-hold on. You're not saying—?"

 _"The Balmera is dying,"_ Coran confirmed grimly. _"Those quakes you're all feeling are it beginning to collapse in on itself. There's only a matter of time before it implodes entirely."_

" _What_?" Eva's face was as pale as Jordan's. "But I don't— _how_ is it…?"

 _"The Galra have taken too many crystals in too short of a time,"_ Allura explained quietly. _"It wasn't given the time needed for it to heal itself properly after each crystal was taken, and it no longer has the capability to do so."_

"Wh-What can we do?" Jordan stammered a bit. "I mean—there's gotta be _something_ we can do, right?!"

 _"Evacuating the Balmera is the only option we have now."_

"How long do we have before it collapses?" Shiro asked, feeling ill. Their first mission wasn't going nearly as well as he'd hoped it would.

 _"Two vargas at the most."_ Coran paused. _"Probably less than that. Our scanners are showing that the life is draining from it quickly."_

 _"So what're we going to do, bring up small groups five at a time?"_ Stan asked.

 _"That would take too long. Perhaps if we could get the castle down to the surface…"_

 _"You'd get blown to pieces by the giant lizard up there."_

"Not if we distract it," Shiro countered.

"Huh?" Both Eva and Jordan fixed him with an incredulous look; it was the former that had spoken. "But how are we going to do that?"

"Provoke, evade, and lead it away from where the castle touches down."

 _"It…sounds like it might work,"_ Koji agreed hesitantly.

 _"It sounds insane,"_ Stan muttered in the background.

"It's better than sitting here and doing nothing," Jordan said morosely, before turning to look at the two Balmerans, coughing forcibly. "Uh—I know this sounds really bad, but…is there any way you could let the other Balmerans here know about this?"

"I can," Shay affirmed. "But I know not what they will say."

Shiro dimly heard Allura saying something to Coran, before he heard very clearly _"I'm coming down."_

* * *

Jordan was only really halfway comprehending the ongoing conversation, because his brain kept repeating Coran's words over and over again.

 _The Balmera is dying._

That one little statement had left him feeling like he'd been dunked in ice water after having the floor ripped out from under him, when it had no right to. Then again, maybe it did—the Balmera wasn't just home to the Balmerans, but a living creature in itself.

And the Galra had all but killed it. Jordan thought he wouldn't have been capable of hating something as much as the Crogs, but as of that moment, there was a close second in that list.

It just…wasn't _fair_.

"Jordan!" someone snapped next to him, pulling him back to the current situation. Eva was standing in front of him now, not exactly glaring, but the glint in her eyes was close enough to one. "C'mon, we have to go distract that thing so Allura can get down here!"

"Right," he agreed, turning to start back to Blue, who let him in immediately, her own resolve being the first thing to hit him. Robo-lizard was right by the top of the mine shaft they'd hid out in, according to the scanners. _Let's give ugly up there a surprise._

Blue fired at the same time as Black and Red, the moment they cleared the top of the edge of the mine shaft, while the monster was distracted by Green and Yellow flying out of the one behind it.

Which led to the discovery that this one could fly. Because it had a _jetpack_ as part of its back.

 _"I think we've got him pretty distracted,"_ Shiro said. _"Princess, now's your chance."_

 _"I'll contact you all when I'm on the ground,"_ she replied.

A _crack_ from somewhere behind them was enough to have Jordan impulsively yank the control sticks to the side, just in time to avoid the lizard thing shooting past them. The detail of it being able to move fast enough to break the sound barrier was a good one to know, if also a scary one.

It stopped abruptly, setting itself back on the ground and turning toward them. "Mo—uh, Eva, try seeing if this guy's as fireproof as the last one!" he suggested quickly.

The Red Lion flew overhead, twisting around midair and opening its mouth to shoot. Jordan couldn't see where it hit, but there wasn't any reaction from the thing. _"I don't think melting it is gonna work this time,"_ Stan noted.

 _"Obviously!"_ Eva retorted. _"Jordan, try freezing it!"_

"Uh, right!" Blue complied, turning toward it so he could fire. Robo-lizard was left with its head encased in a block of ice, though it was quickly shattered by it just firing lasers out of its eyes. Because _of course_ it could do _that_ , too—and then they were sent flying back by a shot to the face, Blue shuddering with the impact.

He thought he heard Allura say something over the comm, followed by Shiro, but a laser beam from robo-lizard just narrowly missing Blue had her bristle in his mind. _Sorry,_ he thought, scanning the viewscreens.

The _might-be-a-translation_ (a newer development; Blue had the basics of an Altean-to-Human dictionary down now) of the display screens to the side looked like something between decipherable language and alien gibberish right now to Jordan, while Blue was zig-zagging between a few of the remaining watch-towers.

Robo-lizard looked like it was more focused on the Yellow Lion right now, though at one point Green flew between it and a laser with the shield on its back taking the brunt of it; Stan yelled something, but Jordan couldn't make out the words.

Something like a realization flickered from Blue, before she ducked into a mine shaft, just low enough to stay out of sight. "Uh, hey, what're you doing?" he asked, starting a bit. A low purr echoed through the cockpit in response, a reminder.

Breathing, right. Breathing was important.

Then his brain registered the conversation going on over the comm, and promptly short-circuited again for a few seconds. _"If our great Balmera's life cycle is over because of us, then our desire is to stay with her until the end,"_ he heard Shay saying over the comm from Allura's end.

 _"But you'll never survive,"_ Allura protested.

 _"We contacted the others, and all agree,"_ Rax was heard saying. _"It's not right that you risk your lives for us. Please, away. We ask for no more guilt and shame upon us."_

"Hold on just a second, y-you guys can't just _give up_ like that!" Jordan exclaimed, mind jumping from blank to too many thoughts at once. "We can get all of you out of here, no problem!"

The castle was huge and he knew that from when he and Shiro went through it looking for Eva when they were back on Arus, there were _so many_ empty rooms they could use—

 _"We thank you for your offer,"_ Shay said quietly. _"But we cannot."_

"But what about…" He trailed off, feeling like something in him had just caved in. He was aware of Allura saying something over the comm, but it sounded weirdly muted.

Forget being unfair, this was just absolute _bullshit_. The Balmerans hadn't done anything to deserve this—and neither had the Balmera, for that matter.

He was vaguely aware of Allura saying something over the comm, and that his vision was blurring a bit to go along with his eyes stinging, but at that moment he was more focused on taking his anger on the situation out on robo-lizard, which seemed to have not seen him coming for that moment.

 _Big mistake_.

They practically exploded back out of the mine shaft, slamming into the creature hard and fast enough to nearly knock it over. It roared angrily in response, focusing five lasers on them at once, but their training-enforced reflex kicked in a breath's worth of time before the impact could come, with them rolling down out of the way.

Red and Green feinted to one side, it turning to follow their movement, only for one of its eyes to swivel around to shoot at Yellow, who'd been flying in to ram it from behind.

Turn, roll, dive, pivot again, shoot, dodge, repeat.

The castleship touched down near one of the mine shafts—had Allura changed the Balmerans' minds about leaving somehow? (Shay wanted to see the sky _at least once_ and _damn it all_ , alien or not, Jordan was going to make sure she did!)

Muted sound came over the comm from the background, and Shiro asked what was going on. Coran replied with the detail of the Balmerans being trapped, sending a jolt of panic through Jordan. _"Just keep that beast distracted!"_ the Altean finished hurriedly.

 _"You want us to distract it by dying? Because we're gonna die if this keeps going!"_ was Stan's sharp response, a stressed hitch in his voice.

Turn, roll, dive, pivot again, shoot, dodge, repeat. At this point Jordan's arms were starting to feel numb.

 _"Shiro, I don't think this is working,"_ Eva said nervously. The Red Lion briefly ducked behind one of the few remaining intact watch-towers, only to have to speed away when robo-lizard turned to fire on it. _"We…we can't fight this thing like this!"_

Robo-lizard paused where it was about to shoot at the Green Lion, one of its two eyes on its head swiveling toward the castle, and Jordan's blood ran cold.

Cold not entirely unlike Blue's presence, suddenly drowning out almost everything else with the closest thing to words he'd heard from her so far.

That thing was threatening their friends, and they wouldn't let them get hurt. They protected their own, like they always did, always have, both then and now.

It was almost unthinkingly that he brought Blue into position to the Red Lion's right, with Black, Green, and Yellow following in order to the left. For a moment, everything seemed to have been put on pause—and then Blue was suddenly folding in on herself, and though Jordan couldn't see them he _knew_ the other four Lions were doing the same.

It was like someone flipped a switch in his head, but he didn't have time to really think more about it right that second because then all of robot-lizard's lasers were being fired at them, all at once.

There was a flash of heat before they moved out of the way just in time: Red, her heart racing, always reacting on a hair-trigger to keep them out of harm's way.

Yellow caught them before they fell, one half of their support, quickly giving them all a once-over to make sure they were okay; Green, the other half, kept his focus on the threat, analyzing and cataloging things he thought might be useful to know—and useful they were, its eyes were probably its weakest points.

A whisper of a breeze kept them steady, holding them all together—Black, understanding flooding from him, right as there was a wordless shout of jubilation from someone else, somewhere over the comm—and then it clicked: Voltron was the five Lions combined.

 _Literally_.

Roughly a million questions were going through Jordan's head at that realization, along with the little-kid part of him just completely _freaking out_ right now, but a prickle ( _focus_ ) from Black (Shiro) brought him back to the present.

Protect the castle, Allura, Coran, and the Balmerans from robo-lizard, while they…did _something_.

Jordan was one-hundred percent sure that Blue (she was the right leg, now Jordan knew why the Lions were all different sizes) was facing an angle that wouldn't have let him see where they were, but he had a pretty clear image of the Balmera's surface right beneath the castle shining a faint cyan.

It was about as clear as the abrupt superimposed image of another Lion's cockpit, Yellow's, with one of the consoles having lifted to reveal a distinctly bayard-shaped port.

 _Put the bayard there?_

 _Worth a try!_

The point of the mind-melding thing Coran had them all try suddenly made an _astounding_ amount of sense to Jordan.

The bayard connecting with the computer-thing the Yellow Lion had sent a sensation not unlike a physical jolt up his spine, the energy from the contact coalescing into a cannon perched on Voltron's shoulder.

There was something trippy about seeing in two directions at once. The good news was that it let him see very clearly that robo-lizard could use all of its eye-lasers to charge up one very big shot, which was met with an equally-big shot.

There was something even trippier about _feeling_ multiple different things, including his own sensory inputs. Koji shivered, and it carried over to the rest of them.

 _Not enough firepower_ , they were going to get blasted if they didn't move. With some effort, robo-lizard's laser was deflected to the side.

It just barely missed the castle, prompting Shiro and Eva to take the lead, bringing them airborne and away. Blue purred—or was it Yellow?!—as the target reticle expanded into a screen, highlighting robo-lizard's many eyes.

 _Shoot all of them at once._ They could do that with the energy cannon that the yellow bayard had provided.

And it was a beautiful shot, too, knocking the monster down and causing violet sparks to arc across it. Jordan couldn't help but laugh a bit, Stan echoing it with a cheer of his own.

A mixed curiosity and amazement flowed through the link from Eva— _look at that_ —and they turned toward the castle just in time to see a blaze of light shoot outward across the surface.

Though Jordan didn't know for certain what it was, he had an inkling that Allura had something to do with it. Or maybe it was that one of the others _knew_ that Allura had something to do with it.

Then robo-lizard moved to stand up again, its chest-laser shining with a charge. "Seriously?" Jordan muttered to himself, hands twitching a bit in irritation. "That thing just doesn't know when to quit!" He'd be more than happy to just blast it to pieces with that cannon again, but Blue had a suggestion that was equally appealing. If just a little more.

And she was right. There was something very, _very_ satisfying in kicking that thing smack in the middle of its chest, sending it flying clear over one of the mine shafts in the process.

There was something not unlike a shudder before the Lions split apart again, a momentary sense of loss panging through him, but at the same time it was a relief—everything went into hyperfocus for a split-second before returning to normal human sensory input levels.

Outside, the five of them stared at each other for a few long seconds, until Eva broke the silence with a breathy "That was so cool."

"And a little freaky," Stan added, chuckling a little. "I just wanna know _how_ we did that."

"Not even King Alfor could figure it out, and he's the one who built the Lions," Coran remarked, mustache completely failing to hide his grin as he jogged over to them.

Shiro looked past the adviser, eyes narrowing a little in worry, before asking "How's Allura?"

Coran followed his gaze—Allura had slumped to the ground, and was currently being held by Shay, who beamed at them; she was up on the surface like she'd always wanted. Jordan managed a small smile back, giving a thumbs-up. "She'll need a lot of rest, but she'll be alright."

"What was that, anyways?" Koji asked. "With the light, I mean."

"Ah yes! In the past, whenever a crystal was harvested from a Balmera, an Altean with the necessary skill would reinfuse the Balmera with an equal amount of quintessence taken. We had a symbiotic relationship with them, almost. Granted, this was on a much larger—"

Coran broke off when the ground shuddered under them, by means of robo-lizard _somehow_ starting to get back up. (He had not realized just how _huge_ that thing was until right this second.)

But before Jordan could even think about turning to bolt back to the Blue Lion, the ground shook again—but this time it wasn't from an impact or anything like that.

Threads of blue crystal just like the one on the castle's bridge were creeping up robo-lizard, forming in jagged spikes out of the surface of the Balmera around its feet, in clusters from where its arms were connected to its body, and even out of the laser set in its chest.

Not even a minute after, it was completely encased in a massive crystal, its last action being a furious snarl.

It was dead-silent again, this time for at least a minute, being broken by Koji saying "Well that was…something."

"I thought stuff like that could only happen in sci-fi movies," Shiro commented, blinking up at the crystal, before looking back at them. "What?" he asked, frowning a little at the incredulous looks he was getting.

Jordan would've expected Stan to say something like that, but _Shiro_?

Blue purred amusedly in the background.

* * *

It was decided that they'd stay on the Balmera for the night, to let everyone rest up a little, though Eva had a feeling that the real reason for it was that Allura had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the past hour or so according to Coran, who often went back up into the castle to check on her.

The rest of them were kept busy—Shiro and Jordan had gone straight to hunting down the last of the sentries down in the tunnels, while Stan, Koji, and Eva herself set to re-securing many of the ladders in the shafts that had fallen during all the ground-shaking earlier.

Five lion-shaped robots put together apparently made one big person-shaped robot, AKA Voltron.

That had been…something else. Eva couldn't remember too much of it herself, aside from Red being the right arm, but that was how Jordan had described it. _Something else_.

Monster #2 being trapped in a gigantic crystal by the Balmera was something else. So was the fact that the formerly-barren surface was now covered in countless smaller blue crystals.

Both Stan and Koji had been poking at one of them, until one of the older Balmerans had coaxed them over to the nearest gathering; a few firepits had been set up here and there once the sun had set, which Eva was thankful for, considering that the temperature had dropped really fast.

Lighting _hadn't_ been too much of a problem, given that the steadily-growing crystals cast off a bluish glow that gave the whole surface of the Balmera an unearthly look to it.

It was nothing compared to the light from earlier, though. That had been right up there with the first time she'd seen the Avatar.

Dinner was some kind of soup. Jordan mentioned it being the same thing that Shay's grandmother had made when he and Coran had first come to the Balmera to get the castle's new crystal, and if it was an alien food he didn't turn his nose up at, that definitely meant it was edible.

Stan, Koji, and Coran all hadn't had a complaint either. Shiro was half-inhaling his, but considering he didn't make a face at the synthetics, she wasn't going to be using him as a reference in terms of new food anytime soon.

The Lions were still where they'd been set down by the castle, though they hadn't bothered with putting their shields up like they had earlier. A few younger Balmerans occasionally darted up to one of them, touching them briefly, the metal under their hands shimmering before they darted away again, and the older ones would duck their heads respectfully when walking by.

It almost mirrored what all five of them had been getting; Shiro would nod back politely, Jordan muttering something indistinctly under his breath, and she could've sworn she saw Stan blush a little at one point. Eva herself had been approached twice so far, both of which she at least managed to smile in response at.

Koji had been left alone so far, but he looked pretty out of it right now, only poking halfheartedly at the food. At least, up until one of the various kids around ran up and pressed a bracelet with a few glossy green beads tied to it into his hand, saying something too quickly and quietly for Eva to hear clearly before running away again. Koji stuttered a little, mumbling a puzzled "Thanks?" a minute after the kid had already gone.

Shiro paused in eating to give him a half-lidded look of concern, before asking something—or at least, Eva assumed he was asking something judging on his tone, since she couldn't understand what he'd said.

Koji's response was equally indecipherable after looked startled for a second, and Stan had rolled his eyes in an exasperated way, suggesting he was used to things like that happening.

Jordan leaned sideways a little from where he was sitting next to Eva, frowning slightly before saying in almost a whisper, "I don't think he's slept too much recently," while subtly gesturing to their technician.

She nodded in silent agreement. While he'd perked up a little earlier, Koji looked like he was halfway asleep already, though he periodically shook himself back into awareness, and there were dark smudges under his eyes.

Shiro and Stan both glanced up a little, right before Eva heard the footsteps from behind her and Jordan, and recognized one of them as Rax. He tensed, clearing his throat before saying, "I owe you an apology. All of you. I—" He paused, took a deep breath, and then the next words came out in a rush. "The Galra have ruled us for so long I feared they could never be defeated. I acted against you, so that we would avoid punishment. Had I been successful…"

He seemed to waver a little, catching himself at the last second. "My fear would have cost our Balmera her life, and the lives of my family."

Something twitched unpleasantly in the back of Eva's head at the last word, and she had to nail her focus onto the ongoing conversation.

Jordan blinked owlishly. "I think I know what you mean," he said awkwardly, scratching at the back of his head with one hand. "I mean, I've done a couple of things that…well…things like that." He'd glanced sideways at Eva for a second while he was talking, and her eyes narrowed a little—what did he mean by that?

Rax's attention drifted to the side. "I wish to speak with the Blue Lion, if you would allow it."

"…sure, but uh, I think it's more up to her than me." A quick pause. "Why, though?"

The Balmeran stopped mid-step, replying with "For advice," before continuing toward the Lions. _Advice on what?_

"He means well," the second Balmeran said quietly once he was out of earshot. "He simply has a unique way of showing it."

It occurred to Eva that this must be Shay—AKA the Balmeran that had done the impossible and gotten Jordan to open up a bit to someone that wasn't human in the shortest time on record. "Sounds kind of like Jordan here," she remarked, which earned a bout of indignant sputtering from him.

"You know she has a point there," Stan commented, looking like he was trying very hard to not grin. Jordan gave him a deadpan look in response, after which he turned his attention back to the soup. Stan did the same, stopping to give it a questioning look, before asking, "So, uh, what's in this, anyways?"

"It's grandma's special dish, for special visitors," Shay replied brightly. "Cave-root for the skin, cave-bugs for the soul."

There were three near-synchronized choking sounds, and Koji abruptly put the bowl he was holding down. "Thank you for the, uh…bugs," Coran got out, smiling thinly. Jordan mirrored the action, though his looked more forced than anything.

Stan shrugged after a few seconds, muttering "I've had weirder," and Shiro nodded in silent agreement.

Though Eva was pretty sure she'd just lost her appetite altogether, the soup had still tasted better than the food at her boarding school.

That didn't mean she was going to be touching it again anytime soon, though.

Rax returned then, decidedly changing the subject, and Jordan looked almost thankful. "So, uh—" He coughed a bit, before cautiously inquiring "What'd she say?"

Shay's brother opened his mouth to reply, closed it again, and then replied, "She put a thought to rest."

"Well, that's good," Eva said lightly. "Um…right?"

In the mixed lighting, Rax looked almost pale. "I know now why Zarkon fears you and your Voltron so." There was something in his tone bordering on respect, but Eva had a nagging feeling that _respect_ wasn't the right word for it. "She spoke with but a fraction of herself, but her presence makes even our Balmera seem small in comparison."

He excused himself quietly before stepping away almost like he was in a hurry. It was Shay's turn to look uncertain, hesitating before doing the same and going after him.

Shiro shot Coran a look that practically radiated a question, but only got a small shrug in response. Jordan had an expression on his face that was some bizarre cross of confusion, pride, and embarrassment.

There was a momentary exchanged look of confusion between Stan and Koji that was obviously out of habit by itself, given that Koji looked away again just as fast. Stan seemed to wilt a little at seeing that.

Those two fighting a few days earlier had been uncomfortable to watch, but this was almost _painful_.

If she hadn't known any better, she would've thought that Koji seemed _afraid_ —but why? It definitely wasn't about the drone, so what else could it be?

She exhaled sharply, feeling irritated all of a sudden, and muttered a half-planned excuse before getting up to walk over to one of the many small bluffs. Eva had seen plenty of people get into silent arguments like the one the team's mechanics seemed to be having right now, which was why she didn't know why _this_ occasion in particular was so frustrating to watch.

She hadn't realized she'd been followed until she happened to glance sideways just enough to see Coran there. "You seem a bit troubled," he noted.

"It's nothing really," she tried deflecting— _tried_ being the key word, because he just raised one eyebrow a bit. Red seemed amused, giving an indication that lying wouldn't get her anywhere here. "I'm just…trying to figure something out."

"Well, maybe I can help," Coran offered.

She bit her lip a little for a second, noting that now Red was giving her the mental equivalent of a pointed look, but before she could even think of a response, one of the two people concerned came up the slope. Stan hesitated for a second, before asking "Think we'd be able to bring one of these crystals with us? 'bout this big?" He held his hands a space roughly five inches apart, before adding "I have an idea."

"One that small shouldn't be too much of a problem," Coran replied after seeming to think it over. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Something," was the vague response.

Coran shrugged a little after a few seconds. "Just go wait by it if you know where it is. I'll be there in a few ticks."

"Great, thanks!" Stan turned, pausing when the Green Lion banked up toward its hangar, before starting down towards a small crevice in the ground a few meters away.

When she was sure he was out of earshot, Eva said, "I think something's wrong, but I don't know how to…ask about it." If whatever was wrong was something he didn't even want to mention to Stan, it had to be bad.

In response, Coran held his arms behind his back, looking up at the sky. "That _is_ a tricky one," he admitted. "In my experience, the best thing to do would be to wait for him to open up to someone by himself, hard as it may be to watch in the meantime." She almost didn't hear the "And hope for the best," at the end, almost missing the momentary distant look on his face.

Red was once again alert in the back of her head as well, with a touch of a frigid, deep-seated remorse, though it was replaced with a reassuring purr the moment he realized she was focusing on that.

So the answer to the question was _no_ , and if anything, she was even more uncertain about all of this now.

Eva also now had a nagging feeling that there was more to all of this then they were being told. _It's like the Great Race all over again. Except…a lot more dangerous._

A sudden shadow passing over her made her flinch, and she looked up to see a dark shape—which quickly veered away, its two wings being seen to have actually been four, and its body more snakelike than birdlike. "Ah, that was a draekrit!" Coran exclaimed. "One of the most common things to see in this quadrant!" He paused, having noticing her startle, before adding "Don't worry, they're harmless. Though they're notorious for decimating food stores. I'll probably have to double-check the castle before we leave, make sure none got in…" he trailed off in a mutter, turning in the direction Stan had gone.

Eva shook her head. There was no way for that _thing_ to be here—and then it was Red's turn to tense, a wordless query coming from him.

 _It—it's nothing,_ she thought, starting back toward the castleship. _I'm just…tired._

* * *

Stan had known it was coming, but it had still caught him off-guard when the adrenaline from the long day's events finally crashed. And it crashed _hard_ , too.

He'd barely managed to peel off the armored parts of the uniform, drop the undersuit into the laundry chute, and change into something more comfortable before everything had become a blur. He was pretty sure the only reason he'd made it to the bed was because Yellow had stepped in somehow.

That still didn't stop him from jolting awake when the door opened—he'd been a light sleeper for as long as he could remember. The one responsible for it coughed forcibly before asking "You awake?"

"Am now," Stan grumbled, irritating lining his voice as he sat up. Then he placed the voice to a face, and rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to make them focus.

Koji still had one hand half-raised and half-curled in a way that suggested he'd intended on knocking first, and it looked like he had his glasses held in the other. A glance at the digital clock on the wall— _thankfully_ Altean numbers had been easy enough for him to memorize—showed that it was roughly one in the morning. Or the space equivalent of that, anyways.

"Uh…is something wrong?" he asked awkwardly, trying to keep the bewilderment out of his voice. Considering what happened earlier, this was unexpected.

That, and Koji was usually out like a light until morning…unless he hadn't been sleeping, which looked like it might be (had been) the case this time.

There wasn't an audible response, but in the dim lighting, Stan saw him tense up. In other words, _yes_. He came over when Stan motioned for him to, at least, sitting next to him.

"Is this about what happened earlier?" he tried.

"No," was the quick response. "I mean—it wasn't that, but I—I shouldn't've acted like that, but—"

"Hey, don't sweat it," Stan interjected, putting a hand on Koji's shoulder, briefly eyeing the bandages on his left arm. "It was crazy earlier." Especially before they'd reached the Balmera's core to rescue Shay, with the two of them having practically walked into a three-sentry patrol.

The upside was that Stan had learned how his bayard worked in _very_ short order, that the sentries themselves were both _really_ flimsy, and that they were susceptible to electrical shocks shorting them out.

"'s not that, though," Koji mumbled.

"Okay…then what is it?"

"It's—" Koji stopped, taking a sharp breath. "It's about what happened on Arus."

A lot of things happened on Arus. "You're gonna have to be a _little_ more specific," he pressed, starting to feel vaguely anxious about this.

"Uh. Well." Koji stopped again, fidgeting with his glasses, hands shaking a bit. He made a very bad attempt at smiling a few seconds later, saying "Well I—I guess it kind of _is_ the maze but—"

"Koji, you and I both know that you're terrible at lying." He flinched, and Stan paused. _If it's not the maze, then maybe…_ "Is it about what happened with Sendak?"

That earned him a sideways look that bordered on direct, right before the metaphorical dam broke. "I—well, yeah, but I just—d-do you have any idea how _terrifying_ that was to f-find you hurt like that after the crystal got blown up a-and with Sendak and all the sentries and having to stop the main turbine from starting and—"

"Whoa, Koji, breathe!" Stan interrupted. "I-I'm fine now."

"You almost _weren't_ though." His voice cracked toward the end, and he swallowed hard before adding almost inaudibly, "A-And it—it would've been my fault."

Yep, there it was. "Koji, I already told you that you had nothing to do with that. We'll just have to be more careful with Rover from here on out. Maybe we can—I dunno, paint it orange or something."

Koji shook his head. "But it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't taken that thing. You wouldn't have gotten hurt and Haxus wouldn't've—" He stopped again, breaking off with a choked sound this time.

Haxus. The name sounded vaguely familiar, in that Stan thought he'd heard Shiro mention it while he was detailing what exactly had happened after the castle's first crystal had been destroyed. Sendak's lieutenant, if he remembered right. But what did he have to do with this?

Stan didn't get a response at asking that, and leaned forward a bit to look at Koji's face better. He'd paled a few shades, and looked like he was either going to be sick, or pass out, or both.

"Okay, now you're starting to freak me out," he muttered, before asking "What else happened?"

Another silence, this one feeling like an hour, before the stuttered, rapid answer came: "It—it was an accident, I-I forgot—I didn't know he was that close to the edge of it—"

Cold clarity shot across from Yellow, right as Koji mentioned the catwalk in the main engine room.

The _very narrow_ catwalk above a series of vents that the bottoms of couldn't be seen, the lack of a railing to which Stan had remarked as being a serious safety hazard.

Then it clicked.

"Oh." Stan muttered, blinking. "Oh geez Koji, that's—that's the kind of stuff you have to _tell someone about_ —"

"How was I supposed to do that?"

Stan didn't know how to answer that, actually. He didn't even have an idea on how to _maybe_ answer that.

"What are we even _doing_ out here, Stan?" Koji asked, voice hitching a little.

They'd gone from being mechanics for a racing team in some interplanetary competition, to being part of a _hilariously_ -small vigilante group some trillions of lightyears from Earth.

Earlier, they'd saved a small planet's worth of people—a whole civilization, really—from being all but enslaved by a hostile faction that was in control of most of the _known universe_ , with a few ancient lion-ships that somehow fit together into a larger mech.

(Never mind the fact that those ships were sentient, and the indication that not even the person who'd built them had really known what they were.)

In the process, they'd taken on both a freakish mechanical lizard thing with a bunch of laser eyes and a _second_ warship that outsized the one they were currently living in, and…and there had more than likely been at least two actual Galra on that thing.

That thought sent an uncomfortable jolt through him, though Yellow was a solid presence that became slightly more noticeable.

There…there hadn't been another way around that situation.

"I don't know," he replied finally. All that got in response was something that sounded like a whimper that was trying to be passed off as a cough.

Stan recognized it, too. The first time he'd heard it was when they'd found a feral cat that they couldn't agree on a name for—and it turned out they'd been trying to name it _the same thing_ —as roadkill. In short, it meant Koji was probably about thirty seconds at the most from having a breakdown. It took _a lot_ to get him to that point.

With a last thought of _Screw it,_ he turned and pulled him into a hug. And that might as well have just smashed the proverbial dam to pieces, with how fast the poorly-hidden sniffles turned into something halfway between crying and hyperventilating, if somehow quietly.

Stan carefully leaned back against the wall, moving his other arm to alternate between running fingers through his hair and tracing circles into his back. He wasn't sure how long it went on, though eventually Koji quieted down and stopped trembling, breathing evening out a little. He grimaced a little at the observation of his shoulder being soaked, but before he could move to get up to locate a change of clothes, another detail stuck out to him.

Specifically the one of Koji being asleep now; exhaustion had finally caught up to him.

Stan stifled a sigh, shifting to get comfortable. Honestly, right now he was just too tired to really care. It wasn't like this was the first time something like this happened, either, even though the _last_ time had been…well, a long time ago.

Given the circumstances, it wasn't too big of a deal, and if he had to guess, this was probably the first time in _at least_ twenty-four hours that Koji was actually asleep.

He could deal with a damp shirt and sore arm if it meant that the closest thing he had to a brother could get some peace of mind.


	11. Ghosts

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Ghosts**

It was as they walked into the building that Jordan started seriously wondering why he'd agreed to this. Then again, Shiro had been pretty clear in saying that it'd be a "good learning experience for _all_ of them."

Coran had called the planet Deyra, and it was essentially the planetary equivalent of the north pole when it came to Galra territory. It was also the only inhabitable place for "nearly fifty lightyears in any direction" according to him, so it was more urbanized than anything.

At the same time, _urban_ wasn't exactly how Jordan would describe the place. The various aliens passing by in any direction sometimes threw weird looks at them, though that was probably because they were all in their flight suits sans the helmets.

Coran stopped, blinking a few times at the sight of the market-scrapyard hybrid ahead of them, saying "Well, it certainly looks a bit different than the last time I was here." He sounded a little sheepish.

Jordan stifled a groan. _I_ knew _this was a bad idea._

Shiro seemed to read his mind, giving him a _look_ before saying "We might have better luck we split up. Eva, you come with Coran and I. Jordan, Stan, Koji, stay together. Let us know if you find anything on the list."

 _The list_ consisted of an assortment of food (sugar, salt, things like that; apparently some things were universal), the alien equivalent of laundry detergent, and something Jordan had no idea how to pronounce or even read, given that it was apparently one of those things that didn't have a direct translation.

Coran said it was essentially fuel for the castle's thermal-regulator, though, and had emphasized on it being the most important thing on the list—even though he'd also said there was enough usable stuff left to last a few phoebs. The same went for the laundry supplies.

Blue had confirmed that a phoeb was _basically_ the intergalactic equivalent of a month. Apparently it took a bit of math to figure out, and giant mechanical lions didn't like math too much. Unless they were Green, anyways—hence how Blue knew.

Speaking of green, Koji looked…well, _better_ would be stretching it, and it wasn't even by much, but he didn't look as out-of-it as he had last night. He definitely looked like he got some actual sleep finally, though.

At the same time, now _Stan_ seemed a bit space-y.

When satisfied with how thin the crowd was in the area of the market they'd wandered into, he glanced sideways at them, asking "You guys okay?"

Both stopped, looking back at him with near-identical expressions Jordan couldn't name, before Stan said "Yeah, it's just…" He made a vague motion with one hand. "Yesterday."

"I know what you mean."

It had taken a few minutes for him to convince himself to get up out of bed when he'd woken up, having been feeling dazed in a way where everything seemed fuzzed-over but also way too clear at the same time. He was also pretty sure he might've pulled a muscle in his left arm in helping move some debris that had partially blocked one of the tunnels in the Balmera, or maybe while doing all that fancy dodging while they'd been struggling to fight robo-lizard five-on-one.

"Think we'd have any luck there?" Koji pointed to one shop that vaguely resembled a place where someone would find car supplies on Earth, from what Jordan could see of the inside.

"Worth a try," Stan agreed.

It looked promising at first—there were a few canisters that had the same label as what was the fuel for the castle. Then they brought two up to the counter, and everything went downhill, starting with the cashier staring blankly at the pastel-colored paper slips that were Altean currency.

"Is this some kind of joke?" she asked finally, scowling. "I don't even know what planet this is from!"

"Uh—Altea?" Jordan attempted.

The cashier rolled all four eyes. "Yeah, and I'm the queen of Markazia. Now get lost, before I call security!"

All three of them scrambled outside and, around the nearest pseudo-street corner for good measure. Stan didn't waste any time in tapping his gauntlet. "Guys? We just hit a snag."

 _"If by that you mean we're broke, we just found that out,"_ was Eva's irritated response. _"Shiro said to meet us back at the entrance."_

Jordan caught the last bit of a suggestion from Shiro when they did get there, being "There's bound to be a pawn shop here somewhere."

"We'd have to sort through the castle first," was Coran's answer. "And that by itself would take an entire movement at the least. We can't afford to stay in one place that long, what with the Galra searching for us."

He'd spoken a bit quieter than usual, though _usual_ was something Jordan only recognized already since Coran always talked like he was announcing something.

They were halfway to where the castle had been set down in one of the very few fields there were ( _temporarily_ , Coran had assured the copper-faced alien that had confronted them almost as soon as they'd gotten out) before Stan asked "You okay?"

Coran almost tripped on his own feet, momentarily wide-eyed, before laughing a bit. "It's nothing, I just—I guess it's finally sunk in just…just how long Altea's been gone for, if the currency isn't even considered a _rarity_ anymore."

* * *

"For starters, I suppose the staff rooms could be cleared out," Coran was going on. His voice faltered momentarily when he added "It's not like anyone's left to claim anything, unless there's anything any of you want in there."

"And how do you know that there's a place that'll trade the junk for that GAC stuff?" Jordan asked.

"It's not _junk_ , it's _antiques_!" Coran retorted hotly, before clearing his throat. "I happen to know a few places, though I'll be going there by myself. Wouldn't be safe for you all."

Eva didn't get a chance to ask what those _few places_ were before Shiro cut in. "We also need to look for a solid source of intel."

"That too," Coran agreed, nodding.

"Intel on what?" Jordan sounded about as lost as Eva was feeling now.

"Fleet movements, supply lines, things like that," Shiro clarified. "The tactical info we have now is pretty outdated."

That got a nervous laugh from the advisor. "And that's not a lie either. I don't thinking raiding warships would be too productive in the long-run, though."

"We might not have to do that." He looked sideways at Coran. "We have the commander for this whole sector held prisoner right now."

It took Eva a few seconds for what he said to register with what she knew. Next to her, Jordan went rigid. "Hang on a second, he's still here?!"

"Frozen in a cryopod in the brig, rest assured," was the quick response from Coran. Koji had paled several shades, and Stan's expression was unreadable. There had been a flash of alarm from Red for a few seconds, before it simmered down into wariness.

"Though I doubt interrogation attempts will get us anywhere, either." Coran scowled a little at nothing in particular with that statement, before slowly adding "Though there _might_ just be a way for us to at least get _some_ information out of him."

He took the dubiously-curious looks as an incentive to go on. "We could try to use the same technology used to preserve King Alfor's memories. There's no telling how reliable the results would be, since it wasn't designed with prisoner interrogation in mind."

"You lost me at the first part," Stan said flatly. "And I'm not going _anywhere_ near that guy."

"Well it's…more of an AI than anything, but like I mentioned, it has a copious amount of his memories. So it's _almost_ like talking to the real deal, just—not quite."

Eva toned out the rest of the conversation. That they had tech to do stuff like that was both cool and a little creepy. _Where would that stuff be in here, anyways?_

Red hesitated, uncertain, before conveying the idea of probably being able to recognize at least what part of the castle it was in.

Well, she'd been waiting for a better chance to explore a little more anyways—the bedrooms, storage rooms, shuttle/star-racer hangar, library, and Lion hangars probably only made up a _fraction_ of the place.

It wasn't that hard sneaking out of the room, with how Coran and Shiro were still going over the potential interrogation plan. What _was_ hard was telling which hallway was which. The main reason she knew how to navigate between her bedroom, the bridge, training deck, and the dining hall was the sequence of left and right turns after a set number of staircase climbing/descending, and directions from her Lion.

A glance through one larger-than-usual doorway led her to find that the castle also had a (unfortunately empty) pool, and another room toward the Green Lion's hangar was brightly-lit and featured a few planters set against the walls, so it was probably supposed to be a greenhouse.

"Am I at least getting close to it?" she asked aloud after a few minutes. Red was unsure; he didn't know the inside of the castle in terms of which hallway went where, because he never had a reason to pay too much attention. Eva scowled. "Well, now you do!"

The downside about looking more at the walls than what was ahead was that it was a little hard to see if someone was coming. At the same time, corners were tricky like that.

Coran looked just as surprised to see her. "Ah, Eva! I was wondering where you'd vanished off to."

"Uh—well I—"

"No need to worry, I understand perfectly. In fact, King Alfor and I used to sneak out of tactical meetings all the time! Though now that I think about it, a few misunderstandings probably could've been avoided if we hadn't…"

"Actually I was looking for that AI thing you were talking about," she managed to get out.

"Oh." Coran looked surprised for a second. "I was just heading down there myself, actually. I think Allura might be there, since she's not in her room."

It didn't take long to reach the hallway Red had described. As it turned out, Eva had walked right by it. _Twice_.

The Lion had at least seemed apologetic for that.

And there was something deeply disorienting about going from a metal hallway to a field of flowers.

She could still hear that the floor was still metal, when Coran had not-quite-jogged over to where Allura was sitting on the floor, and she definitely didn't smell any flowers—but it all _looked_ real, right down to the clouds moving slowly across the holographic sky.

As for what (who) was next to Allura…Eva couldn't be too sure on details, considering that he was blue-hued and translucent, but if she had to guess, that was the AI of King Alfor. He was smiling a bit in an amused way at Allura's protest of "Coran, I feel fine now!" before turning a bit.

His brows raised slightly before asking _"Am I correct in guessing that's one of our new paladins over there?"_

Allura looked over her shoulder, expression brightening. "Yes, that's Eva." It took a bit for Eva to notice that Allura was trying to motion her over, with how her focus had been fixed on the AI; she felt her face heat up a bit while she closed the distance.

She could definitely see the resemblance between Allura and the ghostly figure up close—they had the same eyes, for one. _"I trust Red isn't giving you too much trouble?"_ the AI queried, brow quirked a little.

"N-Not really. I mean, he was being kind of annoying a few days ago." There was a flash of indignation in response to that.

That got a laugh. _"I expected that much. We'll have to share stories some other time."_

It was when the two of them were halfway down to the brig (Coran had asked the mice to _make sure_ Allura made it all the way to her room; they'd saluted in response, though Eva gave Plachu a pointed glare to which got an innocent look in response) before she said, "He built the Lions, right?"

"That's correct," Coran replied without looking.

"Did he fly one of them too?"

Coran paused that time, but only for a second. "He did, yes."

Eva didn't press for more details; his voice had quieted just a bit, but the distant look on his face gave an impression that he didn't want to talk about it right now.

Given how Stan had reacted earlier, and what he'd _said_ earlier, seeing him with the others in the detainment area wasn't something Eva was expecting.

It also looked like Coran had been getting ready for this beforehand, given the various objects that were left by the stasis-pod Sendak was being held in.

"Like I said before, this technology wasn't built with interrogating prisoners in mind," Coran reminded while sticking a few small devices onto the glass. Attached by wires to said devices was what looked like a giant glass cylinder with a keypad attached. "And there's no telling if the information we get will be up-to-date with what's happening _now_."

"Even if it isn't, it'll at least be a point of reference," Shiro reasoned. Coran held the gaze for a few seconds longer before sighing, putting a sequence in on the keypad.

A few long moments of silence went by before Jordan said "I don't think it's working."

Coran ducked to look inside the glass. "No, it is, just…very, very slowly. I highly doubt Sendak's a willing participant in this."

Eva tensed. "Wait, I thought he was knocked out!"

"He is, don't worry!" Coran reassured hastily. "It's just that—well, while these pods can put someone into a complete physical stasis, it can't entirely _turn off_ the mind, so to speak. It's more like being in a fairly deep slumber."

"How long is this going to take?" Stan asked.

"Typically, at least half a quintant. But I have a feeling this case will be longer than that."

Jordan groaned. "You mean we're gonna be standing here all day?"

"The process is self-automated once it's started, so no. Which is good, because I've got approximately a million duties to attend to. Between that Galra crystal infecting our system, and then fighting off those ships and performing the Balmeran rejuvenation ceremony, the Castle of Lions has taken quite a beating."

So long as they didn't have to stay here. "I'm, uh—gonna go…look around the castle some more," Eva managed to get out. "Jordan, you wanna come?"

He shrugged, though was stopped short by Coran's "Ah, no-can-do, Number Two." Before either of them could protest, he elaborated with "Jordan, you're plenty capable with your bayard already. And Eva had a good point in saying that the aiming mechanics between the two of them are quite different."

"So what am I supposed to do, then?"

"Come help me, of course! I was originally going to have Stan help out, but he seems to have made himself scarce already."

"But I don't… _ugh_ , fine." Jordan seemed to deflate a bit, before looking sideways. "Hey, uh, Shiro? You don't have to stay here, you know."

"Someone has to keep an eye on this."

There was a pause, before Coran shrugged. "It's not going to be the most exciting thing in the universe, but if anything _does_ happen, come find me."

* * *

"Shiro thinks it'll work, but I doubt it," Stan went on, turning the piece of machinery that he and Koji were in the midst of rewiring a bit on the crate that was serving as a makeshift table. Koji gave a neutral sound in response, turning to reach for the wrench that was off to the side, before stopping.

Stan looked at him. "Koji? Something wrong?"

He paused, biting his lip and looking sideways at the star-racer. "I was just thinking—the hyperdrive probably would've been better off as a separate module instead of being linked directly to the reactors."

He thought that over for a few seconds. "That…sounds like it might actually be better, but then we'd _really_ have to take her apart."

Not to mention probably have to rework everything to account for the new module.

The hyperdrive aside, there was also the matter of _fuel_ , which had been why Stan had asked Coran if they could bring a smaller crystal from the Balmera with them. (The aforementioned object was currently inside of the crate being used as a table.)

If they could figure out how to get the engines to run off of a crystal, the matter of running out of fuel during a race wouldn't be a worry anymore, even _with_ the hyperdrive.

At the same time, Stan had a nagging feeling that having to design new engines altogether wasn't off of the metaphorical table, and he had absolutely no idea on how to even _start_ on something like that.

Koji paused again when Stan mentioned that, tapping two fingers against the surface of the crate. "Coran said that the crystal from the Galra ship has information on it. If Shiro's plan really doesn't work, maybe there's something on that we could use?" Stan shrugged in response before starting to screw the cover for the machine part back on.

At least, he would've, if the lights hadn't suddenly gone out.

"Maybe a fuse blew out somewhere?" Koji suggested hesitantly.

Stan shrugged. "Wouldn't surprise me. A lot of the stuff in here probably needs replacing." He stood up, fumbling a bit in the darkness to avoid tripping over any of the various things they'd left on the floor. "Guess now's a good time to see if there really is anything useful on that crystal."

He tried to ignore how weird it felt saying that.

* * *

Jordan had a vague idea on why Coran had wanted Stan to help him out after a few minutes. "Okay, explain to me how these things can bring someone back from the brink in a day, but _can't_ clean themselves?"

Coran guffawed. "Self-cleaning pods, that's a good one!" Jordan gave him a withering look, but Coran went on, oblivious to it. "Y'know, this kind of reminds me of my time as a young cadet myself."

And _that_ got Jordan's attention. "Wait, you what?"

The mustached Altean glanced over his shoulder at him for a few seconds. "Right, I remember Shiro mentioning that you're one too—well, for Earth's military, anyways. But yes, I had just enlisted in the Altean space aeronautics sub-tech nano-weaponry unit—SASTNWU for short, bit of a mouthful—and I was sent off to boot camp. Our sergeant had us cleaning cryopods day and night. I got so good at it, I earned my first set of stripes!"

That actually didn't sound too different from how Jordan ended up making a name for himself, aside from _William's grandson_ , except his forte was marksmanship.

Coran was still prattling on, but everything seemed muffled all of a sudden. And cold. And—and since when had the pod closed?!

"Wha'—hey! Coran!"

He wasn't sure if Coran had heard him or not, considering that the probably-malfunctioning pod was retracted back into the floor seconds later. Blue seemed more bemused than alarmed, which Jordan took as a reassuring thing.

For about two minutes, anyways. It was completely dark and steadily getting colder as the seconds were dragging on, and while Jordan was _pretty sure_ there was a little more room in here than there was in the _Arrow_ 's turret, he was still starting to feel claustrophobic—then the pod jolted and the next thing he knew he was looking at one very startled Coran, who was quick to open it up.

Jordan almost tripped in scrambling over to the middle of the room, stammering out "Th-That thing j-just closed on me!" between chattering teeth.

"Are you sure you didn't just trip and fall in?" In response to the scathing look given, he added "No judgement, it happens. Why, I remember a time when—"

"N-No! I was already s-standing in it when it shut!"

"Alright, alright, don't get your boots in a bunch." Coran put his hands up a bit defensively. "They're probably malfunctioning too. Just have to reset the systems and they'll be in working order again."

"If you s-say so," Jordan grumbled, starting toward the door. "I'm going down to the t-training deck."

"I think I'll join you in that." Coran matched his pace. "Might as well reset those systems too, just in case."

They made it about halfway there before they saw Eva bolt around a corner at the end of the hall, running toward them, and the reason for her _running_ was shown to be what looked to be…the training robot, sword in hand.

"Oh dear," was all Coran said before turning to also run—and that, on top of the fact that the memory of the last time Jordan had seen that thing was still pretty fresh in his mind, was enough to convince him to run too.

"What the heck did you do to tick it off?" he asked after they'd turned another corner.

"I don't know it just came out of nowhere and went nuts!" she shot back without pause.

"Ah, it's not the first time—something like this happened," Coran got out. "Of course, it was—back when there was always someone in the control room ready to disable any malfunctioning, uh, functions."

"So what do we do?!"

Coran didn't answer verbally, instead looking ahead. Jordan did too—there was a set of doors ahead, but the see-through part showed open space beyond a short hall: it was an airlock. Next to the doors was a console. The advisor promptly shoved both him and Eva to the side before hitting the center button on the aforementioned console.

The robot was pretty much dragged out, the doors being shut again as soon as it was past them. "Not really…what I wanted to happen…but oh well," was all he said in response to their incredulous looks, between breaths. "There's plenty…plenty more of them."

"Well I'm not going back that way anytime soon," Eva muttered, shuddering a little. "I wasn't even _in there_." A pause. "Wait, where are Stan and Koji?"

"Uh…well, they _were_ in the shuttle bay, but it looks like they're both in the Green Lion's hangar now." Coran paused. "Probably checking that Galra crystal for info."

"Wait, how does _that_ even work?"

* * *

"I don't think I'll ever know how this was figured out," Stan muttered, staring at the screen that was now showing an array of code.

"I don't think I will either, to be honest," Koji agreed. "But we won't know unless we _try_ to figure it out."

"True."

Even if there wasn't any _relevant-to-the-situation_ information here, there was bound to be at least _something_ they could learn from. Green agreed wholeheartedly with that sentiment; she'd directed him to the equipment needed to get at whatever information was on that crystal, which was a bunch of sensors connected to wires hooked into a computer, and that aforementioned computer was then linked up to his tablet.

"Alright, I think they're all set," he said, glancing over his shoulder at where Stan was waiting by the desk. "Hit the switch on the left."

Two things happened at once then, the first being that the wires lit up; Koji assumed that meant they were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

The second was that he abruptly found that his feet weren't on the floor anymore. "Uh…you didn't hit the switch for the artificial gravity, did you?"

"I don't think there'd be a switch for that in the first place!" Stan shot back while grabbing onto one of the computer monitors.

The crystal was already out of reach, and so was the moveable platform that it had been placed on. Green wasn't quite in reach either; she seemed somewhere between amused and concerned right now, and Koji wasn't sure how exactly to perceive that.

Wait. _Green_.

"Uh, a little help please?" he asked, trying to turn to look toward the Lion's head. She didn't move, if only because she didn't know how to—she couldn't access the castle's systems by herself.

"No, I mean—"

A flash of realization shot over before he could finish, and she carefully lifted one giant metal paw. Very sharp claws being included, of course. Green made note of the concern, and adjusted the angle so that the tips were facing toward the ceiling.

When Coran had been going on about the functions of the castle, he'd touched on the gravity-generator enough for Koji to have learned that the hangars all had separate, smaller ones that kicked in when all the doors were closed off. Something about helping maintain an artificial atmosphere when the hangar's main entrance/exit was open.

Either way, if he could just get one of the side-doors to open, the main generator would override the hangar one. Then again, that was only if _that one_ wasn't being weird, too.

The good news was that his aim was perfect.

The bad news was that the main gravity generator kicked in abruptly. Which is to say, he hit the floor hard enough to knock the breath out of him. Everything else that hadn't been fastened to the floor also came crashing down, _hopefully-not-delicate_ equipment included.

"Okay…since when could they do that?" Stan asked after picking himself up, briefly glancing back at the Green Lion, who returned to her usual pose. Koji just shrugged in response.

"What the heck happened in here?" Jordan was the one who had spoken, and both Eva and Coran had matching expressions of confusion; all three of them had stopped in front of the doorway.

"The gravity generator either turned off, or bugged out," Koji replied.

"And the lights in the shuttle hangar went out earlier," Stan supplied.

Coran grimaced. "Considering the other issues that are cropping up just now, I'm starting to think that the Galra crystal did more damage than I first thought."

"So let's get rid of it," Eva said.

The advisor shook his head. "Wouldn't do any good. The damage was done the moment Sendak plugged it into the castle. I'll probably have to do another full system reboot just to flush everything."

"Wait, wasn't Shiro still down there?"

"As far as I know, he still is," Coran affirmed. "We'd all best stick together in case anything else malfunctions on us."

Coran had a point, and Green agreed with him. But that didn't mean Koji exactly liked the idea of going to that specific area in the castle at that exact moment.

Stan tapped his shoulder, muttering "Just don't think about it."

And he didn't. At least, not until they actually reached that hall. At the same time, Shiro stammering half-coherent sentences was what really had everyone's attention—as was the fact that Sendak wasn't even there.

He actually wasn't in the castle at all anymore, given that Shiro ejected the stasis pod into space right before they'd gotten there. (He actually sounded _scared_ when he'd mentioned hearing the commander's voice, even though there was no way that should've even been possible.)

"Okay, I'm starting to think these might not be typical malfunctions," Coran said quietly, eyes narrow.

"What do you mean by—" Stan started, only to be cut off by a console beeping a few times.

"Oh _now what_?" Jordan exclaimed.

Coran didn't reply, instead taking off back down the hall. They almost literally ran into Allura halfway there, looking disheveled. "Coran, what's going on?"

"I—I don't know!" They all stormed onto the bridge, right as the castle exited the wormhole.

The viewscreens definitely had some sort of UV-blocking function, and light shielding, given that they were _dangerously close to a star_.

Allura all but lunged for the pedestal, colliding with the barrier that abruptly formed around it hard enough to stumble back. There was a flicker inside of the barrier, and then there was someone standing there.

Koji didn't recognize him, not really, but there was a sharp intake of breath from Coran, Allura seemed to physically wilt for a moment, and the burst of emotion from Green translated to… _something_ that left Koji with a suspicion that the Lion had just short-circuited.

"Father, what are you doing?" Allura asked, her voice hoarse. "If the castle doesn't change course, we'll all perish!"

 _"I know. That is my intention."_

"What?! But why?"

The hologram turned to face them, expression blank. _"Don't you see, dear daughter? Zarkon can never be defeated. He's been ruling for ten-thousand decaphoebs."_

"But we _must_ continue to fight!"

 _"Fight for_ what _? It is all over for Altea. You don't have to live a lifetime of war."_

The hologram flickered a few times, distorting, before the voice spoke again—this time with a completely different tone. _"Allura, my AI has been corrupted. You must disconnect my power source!"_

It only made a perfect amount of sense that the one legitimate (legitimate in that Koji could make sense of how it was put together, mostly) AI present in the ship had been corrupted. It was a little obvious, in retrospect.

Allura had gone very still in response to the words, shutting her eyes tightly for a few seconds before saying "I've got to get into the AI chamber to disconnect the power manually. Coran, can you get the door unlocked?"

He opened his mouth and closed it again, before saying "I can, yes. But—disconnecting the power would—"

Allura cut him off. "Paladins, get to your Lions! I need you to slow the Castle's descent into the star."

It was a sudden reminder as to how much bigger the castle-ship was compared to the Green Lion. It was also alarmingly easy to tell that, even with all five of the Lions going at full-tilt while braced against the larger ship, that they weren't making much of a difference.

The monitor with the flashing red warning sign that showed a display of the _way-too-close star_ could've easily been just a proximity alert, but at the same time, Green being _this_ tense sent a very different message.

 _"Okay, I'm no expert on the sun or anything, but uh,"_ Jordan started uneasily. _"Blue thinks that thing's gonna blow any minute."_

 _"Oh, that's_ very reassuring _, Jordan,"_ Eva said tersely.

 _"Not now you two,"_ Shiro cut in sharply.

It took a bit of fumbling with one hand to turn those three comm links. "Hey…Stan? What—what the AI said back there." Stan glanced at Koji over the monitor, prompting him to finish: "How long are we going to be out here?"

There was a pause, before he sighed. _"To be honest? I'm not sure. We're just…just gonna have to do what we can in the meantime. Okay? Don't let what that thing said get to you."_

Green's presence brightened a little—do what they could.

That sounded like a good start.

So long as that star didn't go supernova before they could get far, _far_ away from it.

* * *

Eva wasn't sure how much time had gone by before Allura called them back in. Just that it was close enough to the deadline for Red to not let her out and practically fling up his barrier as soon as he was in his hangar. She _heard_ why a few seconds later, and saw the space outside light up—right before it was replaced with the swirling blues and blacks that was a wormhole's interior.

"That was close," she muttered to herself, slumping back in the chair. Red agreed, solemn.

To think that it had been the AI the entire time. The parting words he'd had for Eva earlier suddenly had a whole different meaning to them, and she had to suppress a shudder.

At the same time…that they were all still in one piece meant that the AI probably wasn't intact anymore, if her guess in what Coran had been trying say was right.

Eva paused at the hangar's door, looking back over her shoulder at the Lion. His presence felt unusually distant, but whether or it was just the proximity or not letting it be clear-enough, it felt almost _hollow_.

She mulled it over for a bit, before asking "Was—was he your pilot?"

A minute dragged by, and then another, before Red gave a sort of halfhearted emotion that was discernible enough to translate to a _yes_.

Eva started toward the bridge, before Red quietly redirected her toward the lounge. The others (except Coran, who if she had to guess was off doing a complete system reboot) were already there, and she could practically feel the questioning look from both Shiro, who had been standing by the door, but she just took a spot on one end of the couch without saying a word.

Jordan was lying on the other end, taking up most of that side, Allura was sitting in the middle, and both mechanics had taken a spot on the floor.

Shiro looked away from Eva eventually, quietly saying "I'm sorry about your father, princess."

There was a pause before she said "That was not my father. My father—" She stopped, taking a shuddery breath. "He's been gone for a very long time now. What matters is that we're all still alive."

Silence again, which was broken by Jordan starting haltingly, "I, uh, didn't really know mine, but my uncle—he takes lots of pictures."

Awkward attempt at changing the subject was awkward. It was a good attempt, though, and Eva could respect that. "What kind of pictures?" Koji asked, leaning forward a bit.

Jordan shrugged. "Just landscapes, really. Local stuff. And my cousin Sasha does a few paintings sometimes, and Fiona—well, she's set up a blanket fort by herself in less than twenty minutes. I dunno _how_ she does it."

"Blanket forts," Stan repeated blankly. "Those were fun."

Koji nodded. "Miguel threw a fit every time, though."

More silence, though this time it only lasted about a few seconds before Jordan sat up. "Hold on a second. I know you both work for the guy, but just how long have you known him for?"

They both stared at him for a few seconds, Stan looking extremely awkward all of a sudden and Koji looking more embarrassed than anything, before the latter coughed a bit. "Just over a decade, actually. I don't think either of us would be here right now if he hadn't helped us back then."

"Don't think we would've gotten off the streets either," Stan muttered.

Shiro reacted first to that, a quiet "You've both come a long way, then," being his only comment.

Allura seemed vaguely surprised and maybe a little curious but she didn't say anything, and there was a quiet "Oh," from Jordan.

The fourth silence came and dragged on for maybe a minute, up until Eva stood up and went right for the door, breaking into a dash as soon as she saw Shiro move to stop her, and she didn't stop until she was out of breath, stumbling through the nearest doorway.

It was a smaller room with dark walls, when the idea of looking around occurred to her, with a metal pedestal featuring a broken glass cylinder atop it, with more glass shards being scattered on the floor.

That she recognized the pedestal was what let her know just where exactly she'd ended up running to, and she almost laughed at the irony of it.

She'd never really given much of a thought to either Stan or Koji in terms of what their lives back on Earth were like, since they'd never breathed a word of it—and as messed-up as it had been for them, they were _still_ more put-together than she was.

Eva wasn't sure how long she was there, sitting and leaning against the metal, just that at one point Chuchule crawled up onto her leg with a squeak that sounded almost like a cautious question. Not too long after that, the door opened, and whoever it was waited a bit before quietly stepping toward her. "Eva?"

Considering earlier's events, it being Allura wasn't exactly expected. At the same time, it was one of the mice that found her first, the little snitches.

"You left us all a little worried back there." The princess took a spot next to her, before saying "If—if there's anything you want to talk about, I'm willing to listen." Red pointedly focused on the second part.

Well, they all knew who she really was already anyways. "It's just—not fair," Eva said eventually, looking away.

"Life rarely is." Allura seemed pensive for an awkward amount of time, before saying "It also tends to target the things often taken for granted."

 _You got that right._

Chuchule squeaked again, looking over at Allura, who blinked a few times before sitting up a bit straighter. "I almost forgot about that. Eva, about that ruin you and the others discovered on Arus, there…had been one like it on Altea, too."

"Wait, seriously?" Okay, so the mice weren't _completely_ bad.

Allura nodded, looking distant before smiling thinly. "My father fell into it, actually. It was underground, and the roof was worn rather thin by then." Red seemed to perk up a little, amused at the memory.

"The one on Alwas sank before I could go into it," Eva remarked. "I mean, I'm kind of glad Shiro crashed near there before I could, but…"

"I—have to agree with that. If you had, Zarkon might've had the Red Lion right now."

"Not the first weird coincidence," she admitted. In retrospect, that she'd gotten to her dad's company _right before_ preparations for the Great Race had started was a huge one.

 _Dad._ Shiro had been right about Sendak having been a possible info-source—for more than a few things. But of course, he'd been launched into space.

"Shiro told me that he'd cracked the pod's glass," Allura said, having Eva realize that she'd said some of that out loud. "It's unlikely he's still alive."

" _Unlikely_ isn't a _definite_ though," Eva returned, standing up—and it was a bit of glass breaking underfoot with a sharp cracking sound that made both of them jump.

 _Oh. Right._ "I—wasn't really looking where I was going earlier…"

"You don't have to apologize for that. It was just another coincidence." The last part was said with some wryness, before standing up. "The others are probably wondering where we are. We should get back to them."

"Y-Yeah."

Allura stopped near the doorway, glancing over her shoulder at Eva, smiling faintly before saying "We'll find your father eventually, don't worry."

 _It's not just_ finding _him I'm worried about._

* * *

(endnote)

To Questioner: you are absolutely correct in terms of character comparisons. In terms of core personality traits, there are indeed a lot of similarities.

There are lines I end up keeping the same from VLD canon because I can legitimately hear the OSR characters saying them too.

I really did want to get a segment with Allura in here. Specifically regarding the resolution of the AI incident. Alas, the words simply would not come. Should it ever hit me, though, it'll definitely be added.


	12. Lapse

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Lapse**

A few days went by without much event, save for the Galran crystal being ejected in the general direction of the nearest star once everything remotely useful had been copied off of it, and the prompt landing of the castleship on a small grassy planet that was dotted with rocky outcroppings and a few lakes.

With the sheer amount of things that had been messed up by the crystal, Allura had decided that they would be staying put for the duration of the repairs. Said repairs included a meticulous check of _everything_ program-related for the training deck, which meant free time—which was spent, at least by Stan, Koji, and Eva, on repairing the _Arrow_.

Right now, the floor of the hangar was strewn with various mechanical parts; it had taken a bit of searching for other storerooms and tracking down Coran to help get some things working, but the effort had the end-result of Stan being able to finally take an actual look at the damage.

The hyperdrive was _more than_ shot, and everything near it looked like it was at least singed. Technically, what they _should_ do is replace the entire thing…but getting any compatible parts was out of the question, given how far they were from Earth. So they'd just have to work with what they had.

On the upside, Coran had identified at least two defunct shuttles which they could take and modify/reuse parts from. The cockpit's covering had also been replaced, this time with a material similar to what the shuttles used. It looked like glass and _felt_ like glass, but it was a _lot_ harder to break.

On the downside, he'd also told them that getting the _Arrow II_ to run off of a crystal was a no-go, after taking a closer look at the reactors. Not without putting together a whole new engine.

But that conundrum could wait. It wasn't exactly like their star-racer would be seeing any actual use anytime soon.

"Any word from Allura yet?" he asked, glancing sideways at the other two.

"No," Koji said, not looking up from his tablet. "That decoding program is going to need a _lot_ of refinement. It'll be a while before it can sort through everything." Eva let out an annoyed sigh at that.

At the same time, Stan heard the door open, and a surprised "What the—?" from Shiro, who was standing in the doorway, with both Jordan and Allura behind him.

"Wanna help?" was the first thing Eva asked.

"Uh…I'm not sure I'd be much help, if any," he got out after a few long seconds, looking around the room again.

"I don't think I'm ever gonna know how you guys work this fast," Jordan said with complete seriousness, while Allura looked somewhere between startled and impressed.

Koji fidgeted with his tablet a bit. "We'll pick all this up when we're done."

"Well, she should definitely be functional again," Stan pointed out, giving the _Arrow_ another once-over. "I think everything past repairs is gonna have to wait for a while, though."

"Think we could do a test-flight?" Eva looked hopeful in asking that.

Stan thought about it for a few seconds. "We probably have enough fuel left, but I think we'd have to ask first." He said the last part lower so that only she would hear, though all that did was prompt Eva to turn the puppy-eyes onto Allura, who visibly winced for a second.

"I suppose it won't hurt anyone, but after that, all five of you need to start practicing forming Voltron. The repairs are almost finished, and we'll be leaving as soon as Coran and I are sure everything's in working order again."

That changed the air in the hangar pretty quick, and got Yellow to perk up slightly. While Stan was appreciating the downtime, the Lion had been getting more restless as each day had passed. Eva's eagerness was infectious, though, and it wasn't just her either; Stan was pretty sure the _Arrow_ would be running better with the modified parts, but he wanted to actually _see_ it work. Yellow was starting to seem lowkey curious, too.

So a few minutes later, they were all gathered outside. The nearest lake was roughly the size of the one that had been near their team's pit on Alwas, with a wide expanse of open grass in all directions, broken only by a few rock piles here and there, one of which having a lone tree next to it.

"Just remember to take it easy on the fuel consumption," Koji reminded. "What's in there now is all we have."

 _"Yeah, yeah, I know that already,"_ Eva said, the eye-roll being practically audible. The next thing Stan knew, he was nearly knocked over by the gust produced by the star-racer shooting forward.

"Well she seems eager," Coran noted.

"You should've seen her back on Alwas," Koji said, glancing at the tablet screen.

They'd both made sure to be very clear in telling Eva that the hyperdrive was still (and would be for a while longer) off-limits, but aside from that, everything else was fair game. And she definitely wasn't holding back with the tricks, to Jordan's audible dismay—there was no real reason for him to be in the turret, but habit probably had something to do with it.

Stan shook his head a bit, noticing that Coran was looking sideways in the direction of the tree. Shiro noticed too. "Coran?"

"We seem to have a spectator," the advisor said calmly, which got Stan to look. He didn't see anything at all, up until something moved. Whoever it was, they were wearing something that let them blend in with the rock and tree almost perfectly. Stan didn't realize they were looking back at them until whoever it was bolted in the direction of the distant hill.

"I thought there was no one here?" Koji asked, also having seen the sudden motion.

"That's what the scans reported," Allura replied, sounding confused. "Then again, they aren't at full power."

"We should go after them," Shiro said, grabbing his helmet off of the rock he and the princess had been sitting on. (Tuning the _Arrow_ 's radio frequency to match up with what everything else was using had been the easy part of today.) "Eva, Jordan, there's a change of plans."

* * *

"This sucks," Eva grumbled for the fourth time. "How come stuff like this always happens when we're having fun?"

"Beats me," Jordan replied between breaths, pulling himself up onto the next ledge. The terrain had gone from grassy plains to rugged and dusty after a few minutes, with the one upside being the very-clear footprints winding up the rocky hill, despite them having had to take the time to both bring the _Arrow_ back to the hangar and get their uniforms on.

"At least it's nice up here," Koji said, glancing back at them for a few seconds. He, Stan, and Shiro were ahead of the two of them, but that was probably only because Eva was not-quite dragging her feet this time around.

Jordan had to admit that the technician wasn't wrong. There was a nice breeze on the cliffside, which was a pleasant contrast to the heat.

It didn't stop him from almost losing his grip on the last ledge though; Stan grabbing his arm at the last second was the only thing that kept him from having a long and rough tumble back down, and he muttered a thanks. The top of the giant hill was, for the most part, pretty flat and covered in sand.

Being encased on three different sides with rock faces, it was something like a small grotto—with the back wall having a rusty-looking metal door in it.

"Huh. I guess someone _is_ living here," Jordan muttered, starting toward it.

Two seconds later he felt someone pulling him back by the collar of his uniform (which they'd all put on before starting out) right before something impaled the ground right in front of him.

Jordan wouldn't exactly call it a _sword_ —if anything it looked more like an oversized ceramic knife with a hole through the hilt. It was promptly pulled back up toward a ledge off to the side somehow, someone catching it by the hilt; lo and behold, it was the person they'd followed.

The camouflage shawl aside, they also had a mask covering their face sans eyes, and was wearing a dark-colored outfit—but a _very_ distinguishing feature about them was that they had four arms.

Their eyes narrowed before lunging down at them sword-first, this time aiming at Stan, who jumped back just in time. "H-Hey, hold on a second!" Eva exclaimed, stumbling back. "We're not—!"

Another swing of the oblong blade cut the words short, and it was too close of a call for Jordan's liking. Shiro's too, with how his prosthetic hand lit up violet with an low humming sound.

Their opponent's eyes narrowed, and they withdrew two more (much-smaller) blades from their cloak—and then Jordan felt something tackle him from the side with a shrill battle-cry. At the same time, someone he didn't recognize the voice of exclaimed " _Quirrel_?!"

Jordan tried to turn his head—whoever "Quirrel" was had him effectively pinned down—to try to see, but the most he could make out was an iridescent greenish-black-shelled arm with curved serrated claws that were thankfully tucked inward.

"I told you to stay put!" the new voice went on, which he assumed was the four-armed alien.

"Five-on-one ain't fair though!"

Jordan paused in his attempt to get loose. _This Quirrel person better not be a kid._ They sounded young, but it also could just be their voice.

"I—I'm sorry," Shiro broke in, sounding confused. "I think there might be a misunderstanding here—who are you?"

Silence for a beat. "Before I say anything, you answer me first. Who the _quiznak_ are you supposed to be?"

"My name is Shiro," the Black Lion's pilot started carefully. "We're the Paladins of Voltron."

The alien mouthed the last word, eyes widening, before saying "Quirrel, for the love of the ancients, let the blue one up." The weight slowly removed itself from Jordan's back, and he stood up and brushed the dust off of his uniform before throwing a glare at the second alien.

In retrospect, the shelled arm should've been a hint. Lime-green eyes faceted into four parts glared back at him from a face that looked like some unholy cross between a dragonfly, a mantis, and an iguana. No hair was to be seen, just two antenna bent backwards.

It was also probably why Koji was staying to the opposite side of the clearing; it wasn't a secret that he wasn't too fond of bugs, ever since an incident involving one of Alwas's native spiders, which were easily _twice_ the size of a tarantula, having holed up in the workshop that had been in the back of the pit.

It had not been a peaceful morning. (Koji had been fine with all the giant caterpillars, though. Jordan would have to remember to ask him about it later.)

The four-armed alien's eyes flicked over all five of them before sighing heavily, flipping their mask up, showing a purple-tinted face with a very fine fur coat covering it, and narrow violet eyes. "Name's Twyla. The kid's Quirrel."

…the universe was just pulling out _all_ the punches for him, wasn't it.

* * *

"You live here by yourself?" Shiro asked on the way down through the tunnel.

"Live here, yes," Twyla replied. "Just us two, no. There's also Wayth, Aerel, and Cedryn—and wasn't Cedryn supposed to be watching you three?" The second part was spoken sharply and directed at Quirrel, who shrugged.

The tunnel that had been beyond the door had spiraled down into the ground, only now opening up into a spacious cavern lit by luminescent crystals that were hung from wires at intervals across the ceiling.

Shiro saw two more figures look up from where they'd been sitting at noticing the movement—one vaguely resembled some sort of combination between an armadillo and a jackal, and was configured like a centaur, even though they were more or less the size of a large dog. The other outright looked like a humanoid frilled lizard with small, short horns sticking out horizontally from the sides of their head, the dark-green hue of their scales rapidly fading to a pale yellow shade.

"Don't worry Aerel, they're safe," Twyla assured, and the yellow brightened to an orange shade. "Wayth, where's Cedryn?"

"Garage," the armadillo-centaur replied quietly.

"Figures…Quirrel, go get him."

"Why do I have to?"

"Because I said so!"

Quirrel hissed a bit before stalking off toward a tunnel to the side. The other two shuffled a bit in place, looking awkward, before meandering off towards a different tunnel. "She seems pleasant," Jordan remarked dryly.

"It's a work in progress. Now, uh." She coughed. "The least I can do for you guys for attacking you like that is giving you some info." She ducked into a room sectioned off by a curtain, returning a minute later. "I'll have a storage drive for you with recent Galran troop movements stored on it in about a varga. Starmap cross-references and everything."

"Thank you," Shiro said, a little surprised. "But why—how do you have that information?"

She shrugged one set of arms. "It's good info to have if you don't want anyone finding you. That, and certain people pay _nicely_ for that kind of info. Of course the computer's ancient, hence it taking a while to process everything."

"Twyla? If—if you don't mind me asking, how did you do that thing with your, uh, sword earlier?" Koji asked. "Is it magnetic, or…?"

Her expression brightened. "Nope! Just a trick I spent a few years working on using the most durable thread on this side of the known universe." She took the blade out and angled the hilt toward them, twirling one hand a few times until Shiro could see the light reflect faintly off of the string. "Aek'xai thread, to be specific. It is _not_ cheap."

"You needed me for something?" another new voice called.

Twyla paused. "Uh, yeah. Did I or did I not tell you to keep an eye on these three?"

The person who had spoken there went stiff, shrinking back a little. He had pale-green skin, with the green being darker on his head, and like Quirrel, had a few insect-like features, though not nearly to the same degree as her.

"Well, I—got the engine working again," Cedryn (Shiro assumed it was Cedryn) defended. "That's something, right?"

"You did? Well…yeah, I guess." Twyla shook her head. "Just so you know, if it had been anyone else that found us, it would've been a whole lot worse."

"Okay." Cedryn looked at Shiro briefly, then at the others. "So who are they?"

"Eh, just the Paladins of Voltron."

"…you mean like the fairy tale?" Shiro almost physically felt Black wilt a little at that.

"I can bring Red up here if you want," Eva offered brightly. Shiro just barely heard a slight edge in her tone; chances were that Black hadn't been the only one to take some offense to that comment.

"Pass. I am _this_ close to having the ship up and running again."

"You have a ship down here?" Stan asked.

"Yeah, on the floor below. Why?"

"Could we get a look at it?" Koji sounded hopeful. "We're—trying to figure something out for a…project of ours, which needs a new engine."

Cedryn gave a sort of half-grin/half-smirk in response. "Can't fault you for that. Projects are good time-killers." He glanced at Twyla again, who rolled her eyes. He took the cue to start back to the tunnel, both mechanics close behind.

Eva looked like she wanted to follow them for a few seconds, but instead asked "Wait, why don't you want anyone knowing you're here?"

"The kids've gone through enough already. My end-goal is to get them back to their families, but—well, long story short, we found ourselves in the back-end of nowhere surrounded on all sides by major patrol routes. We get by well enough, even if the only thing there is to eat around here is fish from the lake."

Shiro's focus caught on the first part. "What do you mean by that?" He had a sinking suspicion on what she meant, but he wanted to know for sure. Jordan seemed to catch onto his unease, standing a little straighter.

Twyla bit her lip. "I don't know for sure about Aurel, since a pal of mine dropped him off here, but Wayth's family—well, they were merchants caught in some crossfire between a rebel group and the local commander. He wasn't on their ship with them, thankfully, but…well, you can figure how that ended for them."

There was a quiet "Oh," from Eva at that, who'd paled before Twyla had finished speaking.

Jordan looked something between startled and uncomfortable before asking "What about the other two?"

"They found me, actually. That ship Cedryn took the other two to see? Both of 'em were in it. Quirrel won't say anything and Cedryn keeps changing the story, but given that it was a shuttle from a battlecruiser…"

"They escaped," Shiro finished, and she nodded. Everything regarding his own escape was still a foggy disaster, but the underlying thought of it having been _difficult_ was prevalent.

"Um, Shiro?" Eva started. "Shouldn't—d'you think Allura and Coran would be wondering what happened to us by now? We've been out here a while."

There was an unspoken request in there, and given the nature of the topic that had just been discussed—which part of Shiro was now considering smacking himself for—it made sense. She had a point, too.

"Probably," he admitted. "Go get Stan and Koji." Eva took off for the leftmost tunnel in response, Jordan stuttering something before following her.

Twyla had watched them go, and waited until they were out of earshot before saying "Older than Quirrel, younger than Cedryn," quirking an eyebrow before adding, "What's her deal?"

Shiro thought it over, before replying with "It's complicated."

* * *

At that point in time, Koji was just happy that the mini-computers in their uniforms' gauntlets had a camera function, and Cedryn had been nice enough to explain the basic details of how typical ship-engines on this half of the universe were put together.

He'd felt uneasy the whole time, given Quirrel glowering at them from the corner, but he'd tried to mask it as best he could.

It hadn't really occurred to him until then that there were likely insect-like aliens out there somewhere. It was also likely that whatever she was wasn't the only one, which meant that he had another personal issue to work on.

Then they were waylaid by Allura almost right after they'd finished explaining about Twyla, with the reminder of the trade-off for being able to test the _Arrow_ 's functionality.

Green was happy to be out of her hangar, with the other four lining up on either side of her. The events on the Balmera were just another indicator of how much they didn't know about the Lions. How exactly did they all fit together like that? (And what bits he did know didn't even _start_ to account for the _sensory_ half of it.)

 _"Does anyone remember how it happened last time?"_ Stan asked, the series of monitors showing the others coming up on the display.

Koji also didn't remember much of what exactly had happened on the Balmera. At least, not a decent portion of the events involving the lizard with all the laser-eyes.

 _"I—wasn't really thinking about anything when it happened,"_ Jordan admitted after a few seconds, looking sheepish.

 _"Don't look at me,"_ was all Eva had to say on it.

Green was silent on the matter this time, and judging by the near-synced expressions the others had, it was the same across the board. Shiro took a deep breath. _"Okay, so we still don't know exactly how forming Voltron works. Let's just fly in formation for a few minutes to warm up. Maybe it'll come back to one of us."_

It didn't. And an hour of just circling the castle was…pretty boring. Both Allura and Coran had contacted them to check their progress once each, about fifteen minutes apart.

 _"Can we try something else now?"_ Eva asked.

 _"I just rebooted the castle's defense systems,"_ Coran chipped in. _"We could try—"_

The adviser flinched at the simultaneous screams of _"No!"_ that cut him off.

 _"Ah…suit yourselves."_ There was a quieter addition of _"They're not actually operational yet anyways."_

Jordan huffed a bit. _"Maybe we should try putting them together literally,"_ he muttered.

 _"What do you mean by that?"_ Stan asked.

 _"Like—like stacking them on top of each other."_

Koji frowned. "Jordan, I really don't think that's going to—"

 _"It's worth a try,"_ Shiro said with a small shrug, having been quiet until then.

 _…I guess we're doing that, then._

Three minutes later, the primary emotion Koji was able to pick up from Green was something between amusement and exasperation.

Another five passed before Stan broke the silence with, _"Shiro, I don't think this is working."_

 _"You got any hints for me yet?"_ Eva muttered, and it took a few seconds for Koji to conclude that she'd directed it at the Red Lion.

 _"Okay, I admit this was a stupid idea,"_ Jordan said, and the Blue Lion was felt adjusting its stance more than heard. _"I think—now that I'm thinking about it we were all…kind of doing our own thing on the Balmera."_

That did sound familiar. Vaguely, anyways. "Well, at least we were all in the right place," he commented.

 _"Hey, don't sound so surprised."_ Stan paused, then snorted a bit. _"Though it would've been pretty funny if we did end up out of order or something. I mean—can you imagine if it ended up with a leg for a head?"_

There was a total of two seconds before an indignant squawk was heard from Jordan, coinciding with a sensation that Koji hesitantly translated to Green laughing at the idea.

 _"Hey, at least this is nothing like when you tried flying the_ Arrow _,"_ Eva reassured, trying and failing at hiding a grin.

 _"I guess you're right,"_ he grumbled in response.

Shiro had one hand up to his face, but at the same time it sounded like he was trying to keep back a laugh of his own, commenting _"Isn't the Yellow Lion a leg too, though?"_ Stan abruptly went quiet, and it was Koji's turn to hold a laugh back.

There was a cough over the comm-link before Allura said _"I suppose you haven't had much luck."_

 _"Try_ any _,"_ Eva said dryly.

 _"Ah, I hate to interrupt,"_ Coran cut in, the words sounding sharper than usual—right as one of Green's various alarms started going off. _"But we've got company inbound, and not the friendly kind!"_

The sky lit up for a second, bright enough to have left an afterimage of a bleached variation of the landscape in Koji's eyesight, and right as Green turned her head to look up the cause of it slammed into the planet's surface, kicking up a wave of dust.

There was a five-second startled silence, before there was a frustrated exclamation of _"Ugh, this again?!"_ from Eva when the air cleared. The Black Lion was quick to jump down from its perch on Red's and Green's backs, with the aforementioned two doing the same.

 _"How in the world do these beasts keep finding us?"_ Koji dimly heard Allura exclaim over the comm, and honestly he was starting to wonder that too.

The metal casing fell away in short order to show that this thing, while at least followed the laser-lizard's configuration by being humanoid, was also obviously _significantly_ better-armored than it, and maybe even the one from Arus. Its mismatched eyes locked onto them seconds after lighting up.

 _"Everyone get ready,"_ Shiro said. _"We have no idea what this thing's going to—look out!"_

Black jumped out of the way of a large, plasmatic orb that swung in a wide arc, just narrowly missing both it and the Red Lion, before swerving around again when the mech swung its right arm, which looked more like a weapon.

Green fired at it, but it did nothing—and the next Koji knew the Lion had been flung backwards and into the ground hard enough to make everything spin for a few seconds. Green's presence spiked with some concern, to which he responded with a shaky "I'm okay."

 _"Uh, a little help would be nice!"_ Eva exclaimed.

What followed that wasn't a worded response, but instead the castle's particle barrier coming up for a few seconds, before vanishing again with a sharp _pop_ , followed by a string of incomprehensible words from Allura that implied something in there had just shorted out at the worst moment possible.

Shiro said something, followed by _"Wait, what did you say?"_ from Eva. Then Koji realized that he hadn't caught what Shiro had said either, and vice-versa.

Then it occurred to him that whatever had just shorted out on the castle might've included the translator. The good news was that at least he and Shiro had a way around that. _"(We have to at least keep it distracted for now!)"_

 _"How're we supposed to do_ that _?"_ Jordan asked when Koji had conveyed the message, pitch heightening a bit when his Lion had to swerve out of the way of the orb. _"Blue's not even leaving a mark on this thing!"_

The Lions by themselves didn't have enough firepower. They more than likely _would_ have enough together. But for that to happen…

Green picked up on the thought, and started at full-tilt back toward the others. Dimly, Shiro was heard coming to the same realization. They really had to _try_ for it here—

Then everything seemed to fade out, and then back in over the span of what seemed like seconds, but something was undeniably _different_ now, and it didn't hit Koji until he noticed that the opposing mech had actually paused to re-assess its situation.

"Well that worked," he noted, blinking a few times.

 _"(I guess it did,)"_ Shiro agreed, being heard both aloud and…and kind of like a thought?

 _Not now,_ he told himself, shaking his head a bit. _Later._ Agreement echoed over the link from the others—at least words weren't exactly needed right now.

* * *

Shiro took the lead for the most part, with either Jordan or Stan pitching in with ideas here and there—but the fight was mostly one-sided, as of the first hit that the thing blocked.

The orb had hit Black right between the wings, and it felt like being smacked in the back by a hammer, on top of being flung face-first into the dirt.

Not even being able to see in five ways at the same time was able to help with keeping an eye on both the mech and the orb—not without them all ending up disoriented even more.

(That three of them couldn't fully understand what Shiro was trying to tell them outside of impressions definitely didn't help with that, either.)

Seeing in two directions was bearable, at least. Eva saw the mech coming at the same time as Koji seeing the orb _a bit too late_ —but instead of feeling full force of the impact, it was just…an impact, and they were able to get out of the way of the mech's tackle in time because of that.

The reason for the hit not being as bad as it should've been? Black's wings had detached from Voltron and stuck themselves together on Green instead, forming a second, larger shield.

The mech twitched its right arm, and the orb returned to its place in the divot at the end of it with a loud noise somewhere between a click and a buzz, which echoed in a way that was just as weird as feeling like the floor had shifted underfoot like it was sand instead of metal, or being able to just barely smell something acrid and metallic—

Everything snapped back into focus fast enough to make Eva jump, accentuated by a strong sense of _recognition_ from Shiro. That immediately had the others all playing along, and for once she was content to let them handle it. This one looked just a _little_ too much like a person for her liking, and both Shiro's recognition and a low-lying unease from Koji stirred something else.

(The first hit on the shield had her flinch involuntarily.)

The first mech they'd seen on Arus had looked weirdly familiar, the more Eva considered it.

(The second hit made them stumble— _shield integrity at twenty percent_ —)

This one was _at least_ based on someone Shiro had known. Something he remembered from that year of being held captive.

The third hit shattered the shield, and it was both Shiro's abrupt exclamation and the force of the intent that accompanied it that had her acting before thinking, Red firing with everything he had that he was able to then.

A plume of black smoke signified the mech being hit, but it wasn't until the orb flew out and hit Voltron in the chest that she was able to blink away the afterimage of a dimly-lit arena shrouded in kicked-up dust, but the vague not-memory of having something weighted and _sharp_ was still there—

Red leaped onto that trail, purring as a console to the side lifted like Yellow's had on the Balmera.

There wasn't time to consider what exactly the Lion was trying to convey; the mech had run at them and was coming in for an overhead strike—which left it with no way to defend itself from the sword that materialized between Red's jaws. None of them saw the explosion that signified that the mech was down and out, but they all heard it.

There was silence, broken by Jordan saying _"What the_ heck _, Shiro! I didn't know you knew how to swordfight!"_

 _"(I didn't either,)"_ was the response given, Shiro chuckling weakly. The English classes from the boarding school were a little foggy because Eva hadn't paid much attention during them, but she at least got the idea that he hadn't really _known_ until just then.

Red had a sword. A _sword_. It dissipated as soon as the Lions came apart—there was that same feeling of _something_ that lasted for a split-second before it was gone, and Eva let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

Red's presence felt warm, pride radiating from him for a well-handled situation, but her own thoughts on it couldn't be any further than that.

The creature on the Balmera had seemed like nothing more than an animal. A hyper-aggressive animal with a multitude of eyes that could shoot lasers, yes, but still an animal.

This one hadn't been like that. Or the one on Arus.

The one on Arus had been playing cautious the whole time, and this one had studied them right back.

Shiro had recognized both its fighting style and the weapon itself. It might be just what Koji's opinion on them was—that they were just AI's—but at the same time, she had a nagging feeling that it was something… _worse_ than that, somehow.

The Lion seemed to shift a bit, making note of the idea, before nudging her focus toward the others. Both Allura and Coran had come out, and she almost didn't notice Jordan edging a bit closer until he'd spoken up. "Hey uh—Eva? You didn't…notice anything— _weird_ during that whole thing, did you?"

She looked at him sideways. "Weird how?"

"Like—like you were—somewhere else for a second." It was whispered, a quick glance being thrown toward Shiro.

"Y-Yeah. How did you…?"

Jordan shrugged. To the side, she saw Koji say something to Stan, too quietly for her to hear, but they both glanced at Shiro in a way that had her thinking they'd gone through the same exact thing.

"Apologies for that," Coran said, looking sheepish. "I'd had a feeling that I forgot to check some wires somewhere, but I hadn't realized it was the ones I'd put _first_ on the list. This probably won't be the only time the translator goes on strike, either. Not until we can get that board replaced."

"It wasn't that big of a problem as it could've been," Shiro said. "But I think some language lessons might be a good idea." Eva stifled a groan. _Great. And here I thought I was done with school._

"Sounds like a plan to me," someone said from off to the side—poking her head up out of a unnaturally-perfect circle in the ground near an overturned rock was Twyla.

"What the—how are you—?" Jordan stuttered out as she climbed up.

"Underground passageways. This hideout's been here before I was, and whoever made it really went over the top with them. Got something for you guys." She took a device that looked like a large USB drive out of her cloak and tossed it to Shiro. "Great fight, by the way."

"You saw that?" Shiro asked.

"Eyup. The end of it, anyways. The kids on the other hand, well. You already saw how well they listen." She rolled her eyes at the last part, before turning to look at the Alteans. "I'm going to assume one of you is Allura?"

"That would be me, yes," Allura said, stepping forward a bit. "I'm sorry for causing you trouble."

"Eh, don't worry about it. To be honest, we've been bunking here longer than we should've. Cedryn's got that ship working again, so we just have to wait for a good time to bail. And speaking of ships." She paused where she'd been about to jump back into the hole. "That one you had earlier was pretty nice. And on the off-chance we meet again, expect for the kids to badger you for autographs!" And with that, she was gone.

"Well, she's one of the more pleasant Unilu I've talked to," Coran commented brightly. "The castle's all set and ready for takeoff, so we might as well…uh, guys?"

To the side, both Stan and Koji had paled a bit, whereas Jordan blinked a few times, brow furrowing before asking "Wait, we're not gonna have to deal with paparazzi or anything whenever we go somewhere public eventually, are we?"

"It's…a possibility," Shiro admitted.

"Oh. _Great_ ," Stan muttered sarcastically.

* * *

(endnote)

-Twyla's weapon and the character Quirrel are both references to the game Hollow Knight.

-some of you may recognize the species Wayth is. If so, virtual cookies for you. Aerel's takes some inspiration from the Argonians from the Elder Scrolls series (example of that series being Skyrim)

-Koji disliking bugs may or may not be canon, going on details in Ep12 of OSR, in that he referred to the caterpillars as "worms" at first, and was visibly nervous around them after being corrected (thought that also could've been because the aforementioned caterpillars had been chasing them)

-I'm aware that the last couple chapters have been focusing pretty heavily on Eva. That's going to be the case for this story-arc, up to what is currently planned to be Chapter 17.


	13. Life's Essence

Pacing's a bit weird in this chapter, but to avoid spoilers, the segments meant to have happened simultaneously will be clarified at the end of the chapter.

* * *

 **Arc I: Race's End**

 **Life's Essence**

"That's it?" Jordan exclaimed after a few minutes. They were all gathered on the bridge, specifically around one of the consoles, which was currently in use by Koji.

The good news was that the downtime had let their technician get a translation program working, but that didn't change that the amount of things on the data-thing Twyla had given them was…well, not much. There was a map with a few colored points on them, and a few lines drawn, but that was really it.

"It's still something we can use," Shiro said, some gentle rebuke in his tone. "Hitting supply lines would be a good place to start."

" _If_ that's what it is…"

"It looks like it," Koji noted. "It sort of matches up with what we have from—" He stuttered slightly, before finishing "From Sendak. They both mention these…are these coordinates?"

"Those are coordinates, yes," Allura confirmed. Jordan looked at the set of numbers again. _Okay, so_ _space coordinates are freakishly long. That…actually makes sense._

"I'll pull up the location," Coran said, jogging over to the main console. Five seconds later the main display screen flickered, showing three planets.

"Is it on one of those?" Eva asked.

"I don't think so, no. The long-range sensors aren't picking up a thing."

"Maybe it's hidden," Stan suggested.

"That's entirely possible," Coran noted. "Weapons probably aren't the only thing they've improved over the last ten-thousand decaphoebs."

"Then there's only one way to know for sure," Allura said decidedly. "I'll set a course for that location now. It will be at least a varga before we get there, so in the meantime, there's something I need to cover with all five of you on the training deck."

After they'd reached, the room, Stan asked "So why are we down here?"

"The point of this is to be prepared for a situation where you might not have your bayard on-hand, for one reason or another," Allura explained. At the same time, a segment of the wall slid aside to reveal a whole assortment of various weapons hung on clips. "Do any of you have any sort of experience with any of these?"

Jordan could tell very easily that a few of the things in there were laser-guns. There were also a few swords of varying shape, and he saw a bow with a quiver of arrows at the far end of it. A few things, he didn't recognize a single _part_ of.

There was also a few staffs of varying length, one of which he took off its stand after a bit of decision-making, and Allura's face lit up before taking one of the others out. "Perfect! I happen to know how to use one of these myself. I don't suppose you're up for a spar?"

He returned the grin, saying "You're on," while getting into a stance—only to have to immediately parry an overhead swing, which was followed by a sideways lunge that sent him sprawling.

For a few seconds, Jordan was left lying there stunned, before it registered what had just happened. "I wasn't ready that time," he grunted, getting back up.

Allura laughed. "If you say so!"

* * *

By the time Coran called them back to the bridge, Koji was left with a newfound wariness of Allura. Jordan was off to the side, still breathing a bit heavily while looking absolutely mutinous, and would probably have more than a few bruises later on.

He'd come close a few times, toward the end, but was otherwise very familiarized with the floor of the training deck now. Allura, on the other hand, seemed barely fazed.

The castleship steadily came around from behind the reddish-hued planet that had been seen on the screen roughly an hour ago, and once they were past it—

"There it is," Shiro said, mouth quirking into a smile. Built on and hanging mostly off of what could probably be considered either a large asteroid or a small oddly-shaped planet was a metal structure, which had three battlecruisers docked at it at that moment, though it looked like all three were leaving.

Coran did something at the main console, and a new overlay appeared on the display screen, built around the view. "It appears the gravitation between the two planets warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the base off of the deep-space scanners. Very clever."

Allura looked thoughtful. "By the look of it, it's a supply station. Not something that would typically be difficult to locate."

"There must be more to it than we're seeing, then," Shiro said. "Princess, where would be the best place to infiltrate the base be?"

In response, she expanded the view of a specific part of the base. "The best place for us to enter would be here, at the central control building."

"Wait, _us_?" Stan gave her a quizzical look.

"I'm going with you," Allura affirmed, stepping back from the controls. "I've been to transportation hubs like this one many times before the war began, so I'm the most familiar with them out of all of you."

"Princess, I'd much rather you stay here," Coran interjected nervously.

She scowled at him in response. "I'm a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone else here. Therefore, I'm going. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

So long as it meant they weren't going in there blind, Koji was okay with it. Stan said something along that same idea. Jordan stayed quiet, and Eva shrugged a little. "Fine," Shiro affirmed. "Suit up." Coran promptly paled several shades.

Before any of them could reach the lifts to the Lions, Shiro quickly added "Uh—hold up guys. We're not going in to wreck the place. We just want to figure out why it's hidden."

Eva stared at him. "Okay, but how're we supposed to get in there?"

"The Green Lion has cloaking." Shiro nodded a bit at Koji as he said that.

 _Oh. Right._ Stan was also giving him a look, which was returned discreetly, and it wasn't until he'd traced one finger in a triangular motion that Koji realized what he was thinking about.

"Uh, I'll—I'll meet you at the hangar," he managed to get out before turning and starting down the hall at a brisk pace.

Green had perked up little by little over the course of the entire conversation, though it stalled a bit now at the current objective. Now it was more of something half curiosity and half concern, once he'd reached his room on the ship, and had crouched by the larger cabinet in the desk that was set against the wall.

 _It's fine,_ he thought, aimed both at the Lion and reminding himself while opening it up. Rover floated out with a chirp, the thin orange line painted around the lens part being noticed after a few seconds of staring once he'd picked up his tablet—which he'd needed to get anyways—and double-checked that it was fully charged.

He'd been confused (and admittedly a little suspicious) when Stan had been persistently asking him where he'd put Rover, but now he vaguely remembered the mention of painting the drone orange.

"Good thinking," was Shiro's comment on seeing the drone when he'd reached the hangar. "That'll make opening doors easier."

The last time they'd all been in a Lion's cockpit, it had been minus one person and in Red's. It was a considerable reminder that even though it was definitely roomier than an average ship's, it was still really only meant for one person at a time.

"It's, um, very…nice in here," Eva said awkwardly after they'd left the castleship's confines, trying to force a smile. Out of everyone else, she seemed the most out-of-place; at first it had seemed like she wasn't sure where to stand, before settling for a spot to the right by the viewscreen.

Green purred a little in amusement at the comment, and Koji passed on the message, "Uh—Green said thanks." There was a quick smile in response, gone before he could blink.

It was almost like she still wasn't sure how to interact with them.

 _"I can flood their short-range sensors with a radiation burst,"_ Coran said over the comm, still sounding none-too-happy about all of this. _"It should buy you a dobosh or so, but after that, you're on your own."_

The Green Lion arced around the dark side of the asteroid on Shiro's direction, coming to a landing on a ledge above the control building itself. Surprisingly enough, there was both a breathable atmosphere and enough gravity for them to be able to walk normally, and have to make careful use of the jetpacks the suits came with to make sure they didn't hit the metal too hard.

The doors in the building responded readily to Rover, and the patrols were all sentries that were easily avoided thanks to Shiro—apparently the patrol patterns were the same everywhere. When they reached the control room, Koji saw a total of three figures inside, two of which were moving a bit too stiffly to not be anything other than robots. The third was in the middle of yawning.

Jordan had his bayard ready in seconds, though Shiro interrupted with a motion to be quiet before creeping up behind the Galra, and tapping one of his shoulders.

The Galra turned his head, and looked at them blankly for about three seconds before Shiro clocked him in the face with his prosthetic hard enough to knock him over the edge of the platform. Jordan dispatched both of the sentries almost at the same time.

Stan gave Shiro a flat look. "Did you really have to do that?" Shiro just shrugged in response, smiling. Allura chuckled a little from where she was standing by the door, keeping an eye out for anyone that might head in their direction.

It was easy enough to figure out where some cables could be plugged in, and even easier once Green suggested the idea of using Rover as a midway point. "Okay, it's getting translated as it's downloading, so it'll take a little while," Koji said once it was all set up.

"Um, how long, exactly?" Eva asked tersely. "I don't think we have too much time here." A shadow fell over the building as she finished speaking, the source being a battlecruiser.

At the same time, the front console beeped a few times, prompting them all to duck under the desk, right before a screen appeared, showing one confused-looking Galra. _This can't be good._

It was quiet for a few very, very long seconds, before Eva whispered "What's he waiting for?"

"Some kind of signal maybe?" Koji whispered back. This _really_ couldn't be good. If they thought to investigate why no one was in there—

"I got this," Jordan said quietly, slowly inching out from under the desk and propping up one of the broken sentries, managing to have it make a few motions with one arm. Koji couldn't really make out the Galra's expression, but he made a hand motion back after it was over, the screen vanishing.

"Nice going, Jordan!" Eva commented.

Koji sighed, and looked at the tablet screen before frowning. "Oh…well this is all useless," he muttered, scrolling up and down to make sure nothing had been missed by the translation program.

"What is it?" Stan asked.

"It's just a schedule of all the ships coming and going."

"Where's that one going?" Allura hadn't taken her eyes off of the battlecruiser that had just docked.

"Uh…central command?" That had translated literally, by the look of it. "It'll be heading there in thirty, uh…" And, _of course_ , there were some words that didn't have a close-enough equivalent.

"Thirty doboshes," the princess clarified. Honestly, at this point it'd probably be easier to just adjust to the time measurements used out here.

"That's plenty of time," the princess went on. "The information we need is on that ship. I'm going to sneak onto it and get it for us."

"Okay, that sounds great," Jordan said dryly. "But how're you gonna even get on there?"

Allura smiled. "I'm going to walk right in through the front door."

What happened next was marked by the initial observation that she looked more _purple_ than usual, and it wasn't just the lighting, followed by the fact that she also appeared to be getting taller.

Not even ten seconds later, she looked _remarkably_ like the unconscious Galra that had been shoved into the corner of the room.

"How did you _do_ that?!" Eva exclaimed loudly, jumping to her feet from where she'd been sitting.

"Shapeshifting is a feat all Alteans are capable of, to a degree," she explained, amused. "Some are more proficient at it than others, but it's otherwise a trait that make—" She paused for a second, face falling momentarily. "Well, _made_ us renowned diplomats. All I need is a disguise, which we have right there." Allura nodded at the unconscious guard.

"That is _so_ not fair," Jordan muttered, at the same time as Shiro's "I can't let you go in there alone."

Allura scowled. "Excuse me? I do _not_ need your permission." That line had Koji thinking of Eva, who turned to look at Shiro along with Jordan.

"It's too dangerous," Shiro insisted. "I'm going too."

"You'll stick out like a choferiak's nose!"

"You might need him, though," Stan pointed out. "You won't have to take an arm off a robot since Shiro's already got one."

The princess scowled at him, but it wasn't really much compared to the stormy looks they'd gotten from Don Wei a few times. She sighed heavily after a few seconds, muttering "Fine, you can come. I think I have an idea on how to sneak you on board."

* * *

Allura's idea was to have Shiro hide in a bin full of scrap metal. Aside from being stopped to let some people _off_ of the ship, they made it in without an issue.

Jordan leaned forward a bit to get a better look out the window. "What's in those containers?"

"Something yellow and…glowing, I think," Stan observed, with some sarcasm. "Other than that, I got nothing."

Koji looked at it for a few seconds before unplugging the cable from the computer, and taking the helmet off of the more-intact sentry. "Well, maybe this thing has some info."

Exactly two seconds after the cable was connected, the sentry droned _"Security breach detected. Initiating lockdown."_

"…I might need a few minutes."

Eva huffed a bit, looking back out the window—and straightened a bit subconsciously. "Whoa, what's with the guy in the robes?"

"I don't know, but I don't like the looks of him," Jordan said flatly, side-eying her with a look that said _don't even think about it_.

Unfortunately for him, she was already set on it. "I'm gonna check this out," she announced, starting toward the door and ignoring the sputtered protests from Jordan that followed.

It wasn't until she was starting to turn a corner that she saw that Jordan was following her. He cut her off before she could protest, saying "Shiro had a point earlier. Besides—we're partners, right?" He flashed a grin at the end of the statement.

Eva grinned back after a brief moment of thinking it over. "You got that right. Now c'mon!"

Finding their way out of the building was easy enough. It was getting inside the _main_ part of it was only managed by some quick thinking with the jetpack—something about shooting forward like that while not in a ship was _fun_ , and probably something she'd want to practice doing at some point.

After that, a few minutes were spent just tailing the robed guy and the robots hauling the containers at what Jordan insisted was a "safe" distance, only having to stop once so a sentry patrol wouldn't see them, and then the last hall had opened up into a room filled with more of the containers, and featuring some complicated setup some meters above the floor in the middle of it.

"What the heck _is_ this place?" Jordan asked in a whisper.

"Beats me, but I bet the others are gonna wanna hear about it," she replied, spotting the robed guy on a platform near the top of the setup.

The centerpiece of it all was some kind of reddish-purple glowing glass sphere, which was slowly filling the yellow substance. Then the robed guy lifted his arms, and there was a bright flash and a sharp crackling sound before the entire room was highlighted an eerie shade of violet.

The contents of the sphere quickly changed color to match the lighting, filtering out into a much-smaller canister. "Looks like it's some kind of refinery," Jordan muttered, blinking before his eyes widened a bit, and Eva saw his visor gain a green outline. "Hey uh, guys? You see this, right?"

There was a gasp from over the comm. _"I—I've never seen anything like that,"_ Coran exclaimed quietly.

 _"What_ is _that?"_ Stan sounded somewhere between intrigued and wary.

Then, in the background, the sentry spoke: _"The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe."_

 _"What? That's impossible."_ Coran's tone took a turn for the disbelieving and…Eva wasn't sure what else it was, but it sounded something like _fear_.

That Red snapped to attention at the word "quintessence" was also something that put her on edge.

 _"Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements,"_ the sentry went on.

 _"You guys heard that, right?"_ Koji said, followed by a mutter of _"Never thought I'd be interrogating a robot."_

"Yeah, we heard it," Eva affirmed. "I'm gonna try to get some of that quin-whatever stuff."

"Mo—Eva that is a _really_ bad idea!" Jordan hissed, stumbling over her name. "We don't know _what_ that robed guy even is!"

"He's probably just another Galra," she retorted. "Jordan, we'll be _fine_!"

* * *

Everything was going fine. Perfectly, even. They figured out why the base was hidden, and they were in the midst of acquiring some _quite_ up-to-date information from the base's main computer—the computer in his gauntlet was able to connect to the battlecruiser's database through his prosthetic, and Koji was managing the download from the control room.

Of course, there was a fine line between _perfect_ and _too perfect_ , as proven when an alarm starting going off at the same time as a computerized voice intoning _"Fugitive prisoner 117-9875 detected. Remain where you are. Security alerted."_

Allura practically leaped backwards into the room, shutting the door right as the Galra that had been attempting small talk both shouted for backup and fired his weapon, leaving dents in the door. "I think we're in trouble," he said, scanning the room for any other possible exits. Which there weren't.

" _You think_?!" Allure repeated, tensing—and then she charged the door, taking it right off its foundation, knocking out the guard immediately, and taking his weapon as he slid to the floor. She frowned slightly at looking back at him. "What?"

Shiro didn't get a chance to say anything before a few laser shots just barely missed both of them, sourced from an incoming horde of sentries, which prompted them both to take off running. "Koji, both you and Stan need to get back to the Green Lion, now!"

 _"Wait, why? What's going on?"_

A shot sounding off from beside him had Shiro glance to the side instead of answering. Allura glanced down at the laser-rifle in hand, then in the opposite direction of where she'd likely _intended_ to fire—at the leading sentry in patrol of three, which now sported a clean hole through it. He took care of the other two quickly, with Allura grabbing the one she'd shot and flinging it into the horde.

"I thought you said you'd traveled around the galaxy," Shiro ranted a bit while taking the weapon and turning it over before giving it back. "You fly a _spaceship_. How could you _possibly_ not know how to hold this?"

"I'm _tense_!" she retorted hotly, grabbing him by the shoulder before breaking into a run. "This is a tense situation!"

 _"Secure hatches,"_ someone intoned over a speaker system. _"All personnel take positions for departure."_

 _Not good._

Even though it was a slightly-different model of battlecruiser than Sendak's had been, this battlecruiser followed the same basic layout—a second announcement garnered a split-second stumble from Allura, with the anxious line of "We won't be able to leave once the ship goes into hyper-speed!" after having pried the now-useless helmet off.

They raced around another corner and into the first bay holding one of the escape pods, Shiro pausing momentarily to slam his hand against a button to close the doors—but that didn't stop the horde of sentries, with two of them moving to open it again after the launch sequence was started for the pod.

Allura turned back to try forcing it shut, to little avail; while being flimsy in build, the sentries were about as strong as a person-like robot would typically be.

"Shiro, you have to go!"

"I'm not leaving you here!" he shot back, silently willing the metal to weld together faster—his prosthetic's heat output was enough to make it _just_ malleable enough—

The next thing he knew he'd been flung through the air, landing heavily on the floor of the shuttle before the doors sealed, rolling a bit from the extra momentum. _She didn't…_

Shiro scrambled to his feet, just in time to see the horde force the doors open, and a small parting smile from the princess.

* * *

In retrospect, things really had been going just a _little_ too well. Jordan had taken his eyes off the robed creep for a few seconds to take a closer look at the glowing stuff in the canister after Eva had lifted it off of the conveyor, and when he'd looked back, the guy was just _gone_.

"Wait, where did he go?" she started, confused—then there was a sound like radio-static and _something_ hit her hard enough to send her sprawling.

Namely, the hooded creep, who _also_ had an equally-creepy mask with six yellow eyes painted on it, vanishing again the second his bayard took form. _What the hell was that?!_

"H-Hey, are you alright?" He ran over to help her up, and she nodded jerkily.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she got out, looking up. The robed creep picked up the canister where it had been left on the floor, placing it carefully on the next conveyor thing before turning to face them again.

Jordan felt an eye twitch before firing a few shots—but the creep _teleported_ a few feet to the left, and again when Eva tried firing off a shot from her bayard at him, and the third occasion he was just gone altogether.

"Okay, I've never seen anyone do that before," Eva whispered. Then she looked up, eyes widening in fear, and Jordan barely registered her yanking him back with her before a bolt of purple-colored _lightning_ scorched the floor where they'd just been.

Blue had been tense in the back of his head ever since the word _quintessence_ had been dropped, but now that tension was devolving into panic. _Message received,_ he admitted to her after a few seconds. "Uh, Koji? We kinda need an extraction right about now!"

If the technician responded, Jordan didn't hear it, because they both had to dash away from another _attempted-murder-via-lightning_.

 _Maybe if I sneak up on him…_

The smoke was the thick-and-dark type and was leaving some sizable clouds in the air, but so long as he didn't move—

Jordan swung his bayard overhead like how Allura had with her staff earlier, only for the masked alien to catch it with some sort of purple forcefield, turning his head to look right at him before firing off another lightning shot, point-blank.

It hurt like a _bitch_ , and hit hard enough to send him flying clear across the room and into one of the other canisters of quintessence.

He hissed out a breath at seeing his hands—not only had the lightning actually disintegrated part of the gauntlets, but by the look of it, he had some second-degree burns.

Another telltale crackling sound made him look up, but the _thing_ just teleported again when Eva tried whacking it with her bayard. (There was no way that thing was natural. _No fucking way_.)

There was also a snowball's chance in a volcano that he was going to let that thing get another shot in at her. He was pretty sure at this point that it was mostly instinct directing the jetpack, with how it let out as soon as he was close enough to the upper conveyor belt. "Jordan, what— _oh_!" Eva broke off with a quiet exclamation when she got a look at his hands.

"Uh, it's—this is nothing," he tried diverting, forcibly keeping the tremor out of his voice. "It'll—it'll be fine once we get out of here. Magic h-healing tech, remem— _look out_!" He shoved her to the side if only because it was the first thing that came to mind when he saw the lightning bolt coming, both of them landing in a heap up against the container of quintessence that had been automatically removed from the shelf.

The masked thing was standing at the top of the ramp, one hand already glowing with another shot.

Jordan aimed the bayard, ignoring the fact that the movement got the nerves in his hands to practically scream with protest.

Both fired—and missed _spectacularly_ thanks to the foundation of the room shaking; the sound of metal tearing preceded several dozen tons of giant green mechanical lion crashing through the ceiling, which got a startled curse from Jordan and a short, surprised cry from Eva.

Whereas Jordan's shot harmlessly dissipated against the top of a different canister the lightning bolt hit the glass of the one behind him and Eva directly, shattering it and promptly covering them both in the substance.

He heard Eva sputter a bit next to him, probably spitting some out, and he had some conflicting thoughts on his impulse of moving his arms to shield his face.

 _"Get in—we have to get Shiro and Allura too!"_ was the hurried thread of words heard over the comm from the pilot of the aforementioned mechanical cat, and both of them practically vaulted onto the lower jaw of the Green Lion.

"What…what _was_ that thing?" Eva asked after a few moments of trying to catch her breath.

Jordan tried and failed at laughing. "I have no idea, but I never want to…huh?"

He thought the searing pain in his hands had devolved into pins-and-needles when the container shattered, but now that he was looking at the burns again…

Well, there _weren't_ any burns.

"Huh," he muttered again, turning his hands over a few times before exchanging a glance with Eva, who looked just as mystified as he was feeling. _Just what is that stuff?_

They both entered the Green Lion's cockpit right as it landed on top of the control building, the battlecruiser lifting away from the surface of the base. "Nice entrance," Eva commented lightly.

Koji didn't respond aside from a quick glance, muttering "They'd have to be in one of the shuttles at this point," tersely.

It wasn't until after the battlecruiser had shot off so fast it might as well have just _vanished_ that Jordan saw the shuttle.

That it was only Shiro that came out of the shuttle when the Green Lion drew closer put up a warning flag in Jordan's head. Shiro's expression doubled it.

"Where's Allura?" Koji asked uneasily.

"That ship. It was going to Zarkon's central command, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…" He trailed off, eyes widening. " _Please_ tell me she's not still on there."

Shiro didn't say anything else, which was an answer in itself.

* * *

Green's cockpit was silent the entire way back to the hangar, and the silence stayed until the five of them reached the bridge, broken when Shiro gave out sharp, hurried directions.

Coran pointed out the obvious in asking where Allura was. A low-toned "Nowhere good," from Stan prompted the adviser to turn on Shiro.

"They captured her," he said shortly. "She sacrificed herself to save me and the information. I didn't have a choice."

"How is that possible?!"

Shiro exhaled sharply. "Coran, I'm sorry things didn't go as planned, but we can't focus on what went wrong. We've got to figure out how to make it right." Coran was pale-faced, but he nodded in agreement.

"So what, we're just gonna charge in there?" Jordan asked.

"No." Shiro took a deep breath. "If I had to be honest, we shouldn't even be _thinking_ about hitting Zarkon where he lives. But right now, we don't have a choice." His expression changed to something more along the lines of confusion then, and Eva followed his gaze, which was on Jordan's gauntlets. The white part had been piecing itself together since they'd gotten into Green, but the fabric remained a mess.

Coran jumped a bit at noticing the damage. "And how in the world did _that_ happen?"

"Uh…" Jordan looked at Eva, who felt a subconscious grimace form. "Well, we sorta got in a fight with some freaky robed… _thing_ with a mask. It kept teleporting every time we tried hitting it. And don't even get me started on the whole _lightning-throwing_ thing it was doing—that's how this happened."

"It—it was taking a container of that…quintessence stuff from the ship into the base," Eva added. Over the course of Jordan speaking, she'd become aware of a cold, sinking feeling in the back of her head.

It wasn't from Red.

"You two went after a druid _by yourselves_?" Shiro's face had slowly been paling as they had explained what had happened.

"Is that what they're called?" Jordan seemed to shrink back a little. "But hey, it—it's not even that bad, see?" He held his hands up, showing that they were unmarked.

Somehow.

"And—and I was the one that wanted to go after it. Won't do it again."

 _Huh?_ Eva glanced sideways at Jordan's last statement.

"I think we have other things to worry about right now," Stan cut in, tone borderline snapping, from where he was standing by Koji. "Like _how we're supposed to do this_."

Shiro jolted, shaking his head. "Y-You're right. We'll have time to discuss this _later_." The emphasis on the second word cemented that there _would_ be a talk, and Eva looked at Jordan again, frowning. He just smiled a fraction and shook his head slightly in response.

Stan, meanwhile, had gestured at the main display screen, which now featured a diagram of…what Eva assumed was the main feature of the _central command_. "Look at the size of it," Coran breathed.

"Uh, I'm—not good with alien numbers, is this _good size_ or _bad size_?" Jordan asked.

"Bad." Stan's tone was grim now. "The thing's _huge_. Like, maybe a hundred times bigger than the castle at the _least_."

"Oh, _of course_ it is…"

"Okay, so it's just a bigger target," Eva said. "We just have to go in, get Allura, and get out. Easy, right?"

"In theory." Koji didn't sound optimistic, and that in itself was probably not a good thing. "If there _is_ a way in, I'm not seeing it. Not to mention—" He paused before tapping one of the screens on the console, prompting a different screen of data to show up on the main screen. "If this is translating right, there's an attendant fleet, which…consists of a lot of things that we've only seen twice, and both times gave us more than a bit of trouble." Silence followed that.

Red had been growing more tense throughout the entire conversation, and when Eva tried querying him for any ideas, all she got in response was a vague sense of impending doom.

Which, for the short time she'd known the sentient ancient ship, was pretty gosh-darn out-of-character.

Both Coran and Jordan had left the bridge while she hadn't been paying attention—probably to go look for an intact undersuit to the armor for the latter—but the other three were still there. Shiro was staring up at the diagram, Koji was looking over the smaller version on the console, and Stan was pacing.

"Is…is anyone else getting a really bad feeling about this?" she asked finally.

Stan paused. "Well, Yellow's pretty freaked-out right now, so I'd say yes."

"Considering the circumstances, I think it's reasonable that we're all on edge," Shiro said, tone calmly tired.

There was something more to it. That much she knew for sure. She just didn't know _what_.

The door opening preceded the other two coming back, Jordan now with a fully-intact uniform, and Coran with a new glint of determination in his eyes before he marched over to the front console and highlighted part of the diagram. "This gas giant right here is the best chance we have for getting Allura back. The atmosphere's dense to the point where we'd be perfectly hidden."

"How're we supposed to _get_ there?" Koji asked.

Coran smiled at that. "We wormhole in! It's true that the teludav typically requires Allura to function, but we should have enough juice for one jump." The smile faltered. "It'll be a one-way trip without her, though."

"We're not leaving without her either way." Shiro's expression didn't waver. Coran nodded, and proceeded to open up a wormhole.

"So it's do-or-die. Got it," Stan remarked. To the side, Koji visibly swallowed.

"I say we can take 'em," Jordan said confidently.

The opaque blues and blacks gave way to a field of reds and purples, open space being dimly visible just beyond, and past that…

Eva suppressed a flinch. _Oh wow, it_ is _big._

"Well, we're too far to know for certain, but Allura is _definitely_ on the main ship," Coran reported. "You'll have to get closer for me to pinpoint her exact location."

"We're going to bring Voltron in fast, smash our way into Zarkon's ship, grab the princess, and get out," Shiro summarized. "Hopefully it'll be quick enough so that they don't have time to respond. Now let's get moving!"

* * *

The trick was in the mindset. Coran had relented and explained it to them when he'd figured that they had the general concept of it down—on the Balmera, they'd all been likeminded enough in saving the Balmerans that it had triggered Voltron's formation. The same went for the fight against the mech on Twyla's planet.

It was daunting, willingly opening up the link to the others, but Red took center-stage along with the other four Lions, and it might as well have been like turning a light on in a completely-dark room, because then the others were just _there_.

Shiro took the lead, guiding them through the web of shots fired from _multiple battlecruisers_ before tackling the closest one, driving Red's head through the hull on top of it, an unspoken request for the sword.

Someone shuddered over the link (maybe it was her) as the ship was sliced open lengthwise, clipping an engine along the way if the following explosion was any indicator, and the forward charge was continued, even after slamming broadside into another battlecruiser, driving forward enough to push it into another—and _through_ both of them, even—before facing down the next line, the sword being sheathed in favor of the cannon that had last seen use on the Balmera. There had been at least seven, and now there were none.

Weapons switched again before they pressed onwards— _so far so good_ —Zarkon's ship was right ahead, it was a clear shot—

It was like running headlong into a brick wall.

Voltron froze in place with no warning, aside from the sudden _presence_ of something that brushed the sword's existence away like it was an annoying bug.

It was an insidious, menacing thing, pushing into every single little figurative crack in the link—

— ** _you were fools to bring Voltron here_** —

The malevolence receded abruptly, prompting some relief, but then searing pain took front-stage like someone had taken a knife to Eva's right shoulder, on top of the lingering panic/confusion/ _pain_ over the link from the others, with the shared realization of the Lions having been separated.

Forcibly.

For a few seconds she was too disoriented to process anything, with the first coherent sentence heard being _"What the_ heck _was_ that _?"_ from Jordan, the words wavering.

(Forget tense, Red was officially in full-blown _I-knew-it_ mode in a bad way once his own disorientation was thoroughly smothered.)

 _"I don't know, but I'm_ _pretty sure we never had a chance to catch them off-guard in the first place,"_ Stan warned, the Yellow Lion angling to face the other direction. Specifically, toward an incoming fleet of maybe twenty battlecruisers, with a moving wall of red lights that were fighters right behind them.

Eva was left with the ugly feeling that Stan was right.

* * *

Yellow was since past _freaked out_ , but was trying to hide it. Really, he was.

But it leaked over anyways, and Stan had made note of his own breathing being just a bit quicker than it usually was. The fighters were solid, but their design also left them with two pseudo-handles that the Lions could clamp onto with their jaws, and were _quite_ throwable, even with no gravity. On top of that, they were all definitely _hitting harder_ this time around too.

The Lion had been quick to explain it as best as he could—when they'd first been found and brought back to Arus, they hadn't been at full firing-power. If anything, they'd been more at one-fifth.

The reasoning for it had come across as a confused jumble of ideas, but the concept was nebulously translated as something based in teamwork.

Strength as a unit.

In that department, they were definitely at least _a_ _little_ better than where they'd been when they'd left Alwas.

 _"There's no end to these things!"_ Jordan exclaimed after the Blue Lion had frozen a small cluster of fighters, wheeling around to face another battlecruiser. Yellow narrowly avoided getting nailed by another one's ion cannon, but before Stan could even _start_ an idea on potentially hitting back, something else hit the ship first.

Namely, a bluish-white ray sourced from the castleship, accompanying a shout of _"I've waited ten-thousand decaphoebs for this!"_ from Coran.

"Nice timing," Stan breathed, taking the chance to scan the area. Blue was off to the right, Red was darting around three different battlecruisers while landing occasional hits on a random one, and…and he couldn't see the Black Lion anywhere.

 _"I don't suppose anyone has any idea on what to do now,"_ Koji said after the Green Lion had managed to hit part of one ship hard enough to get a reaction, the resulting flames being smothered by the vacuum of space almost immediately. _"Things aren't really going like we planned!"_

 _"I'm going for the Black Lion,"_ Shiro said finally, tone low, and the words earned a spike of alarm from Yellow. _"My jetpack's damaged, so I'll have to go through the ship. You guys get the princess!"_

 _"Get the Black Lion—Shiro what are you talking about?"_ Eva asked.

 _"I've identified Allura's exact location,"_ Coran reported tersely. _"I'm getting you all the coordinates now. In the meantime, I'll provide covering fire from out here. All alone. Against an entire fleet. So, yeah, do you mind hurrying?"_

"We'll try, but no promises!"

Yellow's console beeped, and part of the main ship was highlighted on the screen. _"How're we even supposed to get in there, anyways?"_ Jordan asked.

 _"Maybe I—I could try getting one of the cargo bays open remotely,"_ Koji started. _"But I'd need some time to—"_

 _"I don't think we have time for that!"_ Eva interrupted, the Red Lion shooting off in the general direction of…the Black Lion?

Yellow's alarm—no, wait, that was _fear_ now—only sharpened even more when they saw how close Black was to Zarkon's ship.

The Blue Lion paused after turning to fire off another freeze-ray, angling toward the highlighted portion. _"I got this one, guys!"_

"Jordan, what are you—?" Stan didn't have to finish asking, what with how Blue rammed right into the ship, hard enough to punch a hole right through the hull. "I guess that works," he muttered. "Uh, Koji? I think we're gonna have to cover Jordan here."

* * *

Coran had Allura's exact location down to a dime—Blue had stuck her head through the wall almost directly across from the cell. Allura was pale-faced when the door slid open. " _Please_ tell me you didn't bring Voltron to Zarkon's central command."

"Hello to you too," he greeted sarcastically. "And we kinda had to if we wanted to get you out of here!"

"Where's the Black Lion?"

Before they'd left the castle before the fight, Blue had been very insistently reinforcing the idea of keeping close to the Black Lion. The situation had prevented that.

"Uh—I'm not sure but Shiro's in here somewhere too…" He opened a link to the Black Lion's pilot, intending to let him know that he'd found Allura, but a garbled exclamation from the other end stopped him short.

A look of comprehension crossed the princess's face, before a determined one replaced it. "He needs help!"

"Uh—alright. Guys, did you hear that?"

 _"Just don't take too long!"_ Koji snapped. The sharpness of the words startled Jordan enough to make him stumble a bit, but he otherwise kept running. _Note to self, don't bother Koji when he's tense._

He let Allura take the lead, since she seemed to at least have a vague idea on where to go, until they reached a hangar full of fighters—and a whole bunch of identical aliens wearing robes that reminded him just a _little_ too much of the masked thing from earlier.

…was it seriously still the same day?

Allura's gaze darted back and forth, before pointing. "Shoot that one!"

He didn't need any further inclination than that—he heard someone scream before the shots hit _something_ , the room emptying in seconds by means of most of the occupants vanishing. The smoke cleared to show one left, glaring daggers at them with sickly-yellow eyes that he could make out easily, even with the distance. She vanished too, though, when Shiro tried swinging at her with his prosthetic.

"Get back here you—you space hag!" Jordan shouted, looking around for her.

"Jordan don't even _think_ about trying to fight her." Shiro's tone by itself left no room for argument, and Blue was fervently agreeing with him in a way that left Jordan with a suspicion that the Lion knew who that was. "Let's just—focus on getting out of here."

As they were making their way back to Blue, a wave of mixed anger and frustration hit him from somewhere over the link, and the suddenness of it almost made Jordan trip—but it really _wasn't_ sudden, now that he was thinking about it.

It had been there from the start, and he was only just _really_ noticing it since now it wasn't hiding behind focused determination. And the faintness of it really only left one option for who the source was.

Shiro also tripped a bit, hissing out a curse, before saying "We need to hurry."

* * *

Red slammed into the Black Lion seconds before it could make contact with the behemoth above them both, sailing limply into the surface of one of the side-sections of the larger ship. Eva had seen some oddly-shaped ships back on Alwas, but this one took the cake.

Her Lion's tension was at an all-time high, with him pushing the idea of _getting Black away from the ship_ , but that cut off when someone—actually a _person_ , not in a ship or anything—came up from behind them and went right by, skidding to a halt on the metal a few meters away from Black. "Okay, who's this guy supposed to be?" Eva asked, feeling slightly uneasy. (That cold feeling in the link was back.)

Over the comm, Coran hissed in a breath. _"Eva, get out of there—that's Zarkon!"_

The tension vanished, replaced with a cold fire.

The reason they were millions and millions of lightyears away from home, the reason the Great Race of Ōban had to be cut short for her, for the rest of the team, for everyone else that had been on Alwas, the reason she _didn't know where her dad was_ , was just standing right there.

For a few seconds then, Eva was fairly certain she was seeing red, and it wasn't just the light from the displays. They charged, firing a shot during the first flyby and arcing around. Then something hit them, sending Red tumbling through open space, though he righted himself after a few seconds.

The pressure was _definitely_ back now, but this time it wasn't overreaching, it was _focused_ now, and wholly unimpressed with their attempt.

Red snarled, firing again, and then lunging in a pounce, but Zarkon was already gone; they were just barely able to avoid a violet laser that left one _extremely_ big hole in the distant ring-structure that connected the three planets around the main ship, and jump again seconds later to avoid a second shot that had come moments after. Where he'd even gotten the oversized gun from, Eva didn't know.

 _Maybe if we can get in close—!_

The idea might as well have been telegraphed, with how much ease their opponent switched tactics, now wielding something like an oversized chain-whip. Agile as he was, Red could still only change directions so fast when already in motion, and he was snagged on the hind-right leg and thrown to the ground.

Red's HUD was flickering, the Lion himself reeling from the impact.

The cold pressure had only been getting steadily worse has the fight had gone on, Eva being left with a distinct impression of being laughed at _and she was not appreciating that sensation one bit_.

For a few seconds, the view outside was replaced by a blurred sky gray with rain, the fading outline of a car getting further away no matter how fast she ran—

Eva grit her teeth together, shaking her head to clear it and attempted to get her bearings back, glaring at the emperor. She felt a slight chill as she looked at him—he was looking directly back, like he could see her through Red—then everything was dyed orange, smoke billowing away from the flaming wreck that had once been the _Cloud II_ —

The pressure, having briefly intensified to a point where it felt like someone was driving a nail into her head, flickered with something registering as _boredom_ before Zarkon charged.

Red reacted first, getting back to his feet just in time, narrowly dodging the slice aimed at them. A yelp tore from her throat when the chain grabbed one of the Lion's legs yet again, slamming them back into the metal surface.

This was feeling less like a fight and more like a dog throwing around a toy—and _she and Red_ were the toy!

She felt—no, THEY felt…useless. They were useless.

They hadn't been able to do anything when Stan had almost been killed by the drone that Sendak had snuck into the castle on Arus—Red had been locked in his hangar and Eva had been locked outside the castle the whole time.

Koji had to deal with all of that by himself, and _something bad obviously happened_ for him to have been acting off for that whole time on the Balmera.

Jordan got hurt earlier today because she'd been too reckless. She hadn't stopped to consider that it was dangerous to follow that masked thing. She hadn't been able to make herself do much more than just _watch_.

Red was snarling the entire time—Eva was seeing bits and pieces of a flaming cityscape, flames from the entry into an atmosphere of a planet _far_ from that one, seen from the eyes of someone else in both occasions, both long-dead and _he could do nothing to change anything about it_ —

Why couldn't they do anything _useful_ for once—?

Then it was like a switch had been hit somewhere in one or maybe both of them, and Red abruptly seemed more top-heavy than usual, with him catching onto what just happened before she could finish processing it, the void-with-eyes flinching back _just a little_ —

Red fired, but it wasn't from either of his usual cannons. No, it was from the much-bigger one now occupying a decent amount of space on his back. The shot was deflected after a few seconds, sure, but it didn't just leave a hole in the ring-structure.

It _completely obliterated_ part of it.

"Oh wow," she muttered, vaguely hearing shocked exclamations from both Stan and Koji over the comm.

Red's presence flared— _focus!_ —and they acted immediately, jumping up for a better angle before firing again with the larger weapon, tracing a line of melted metal on the surface for a few seconds before having to stop so that the weapon didn't overheat.

 ** _Impressive…for a_** **child _._**

The mocking, scathing words were the only warning given before something slammed into Red's back _hard_ , sending them crashing down yet again. This time, the HUD overlay vanished, the cockpit going dark.

Sword, whip, shield, laser-cannon, chain-whip, and a mace. All from one convenient little weirdly-shaped device.

The choking pressure that had torn the other Lions away from Black, now zeroed in on her in the link, showing amusement at her delayed realization.

Allura had said that the black bayard had been lost with its paladin. And Zarkon had it right there.

Everything suddenly made a _terrifying_ amount of sense.

"Red—Red c'mon," she muttered, pulling back on the handles a few times, to no response. "Red we have to _move_ —!"

Eva flinched at hearing something explode, but it wasn't a bad thing.

 _For once_.

The Black Lion swooped in and grabbed Red like a mother cat would a kitten, beelining for the castleship. Red's displays flickered on again when Black set him down on the floor of its hangar. _"Eva, are you okay?"_ Shiro asked worriedly.

"I—y-yeah, I'm—I'm…okay," she managed to reply, vaguely aware of forcing a smile.

She was pretty sure it had been a lie.

Eva could hear Allura—it was good that the others were able to get her back. _(She knew Zarkon was Black's first pilot and didn't tell us.)_

Something was going on—Stan sounded irritated and stressed and kind of scared all at once and Coran also sounded scared. _(Coran knew too.)_

The space outside went all distorted for a few seconds, and then she saw the familiar swirling interior of a wormhole. They were safe.

Safe until it suddenly turned a shade of purple _she was_ _quite sick of seeing by that point_.

Coran was shouting again—something about the wormhole's integrity being compromised.

Then Red was being thrown around again, this time by whatever weird gravity there was in a wormhole, and Black's claws scraped against the metal floor enough to leave trails of sparks.

She saw Blue, Green, and Yellow all go flying away into the void, the others all sounding panicked and _terrified_ —

Her Lion collided with the border of the collapsing wormhole, and everything went dark.

* * *

 **"Everything was going fine. Perfectly, even." = "In retrospect, things really had been going just a little too well."**

 **"Coran had Allura's exact location down to a dime" = "Red slammed into the Black Lion seconds before it could make contact"**


	14. Scattered, Part I

And here's the _actual_ Chapter 14!

* * *

 **Arc I: Race's End**

 **Scattered, Part I**

That the barrier surrounding Zarkon's central command—also having been what prevented the castleship's teludav from operating— _disappeared_ was a strange occurrence, but ultimately not _nearly_ as much of a concern of what came after that.

In the span of a few ticks, the Lions were all torn back out of their hangars, and sent spiraling away into the edges of the spatial rift, communications with all five of them being lost immediately.

It was with some effort that Allura forced her thoughts to the matter at hand. The castle's controls simply _would not_ respond—at the most, she could bring the primary menus up, all of which were reporting errors of varying intensity, but the ship may as well have been stuck on autopilot.

"Coran, where is this wormhole going to lead out to?" she asked, looking ahead.

"The scanners were all scrambled as soon as it corrupted," he reported, visibly tense at seeing the approaching exit point. "I can't even get an idea on what _quadrant_ we might end up in! Brace yourself!"

Exiting the corrupted wormhole was about as pleasant as entering it had been. Which was to say, it scrambled the systems yet again, and it felt like being physically shocked.

The castle drifted straight ahead for a few leagues, carried by the leftover momentum, before she managed to rein in the controls, which had started responding again almost immediately. Clearly, the energy radiation in the wormhole had been the source of the problems.

She sighed deeply before bringing the exterior display panels back up. "Coran? I don't suppose you recognize any constellations here?"

The adviser stared at the display screens for a few long ticks, before slowly replying, "I'm not sure. I—I feel like I've seen some of these before, but I'll have to get the navigation systems back online to be sure." He turned to look back at her. "What about the Lions? Can you locate any of them?"

"I'll try to." Allura closed her eyes, reaching for the faint link tying her to the five ships. Three were about as cold as the average dark-season temperatures on the planet Crydor, even after a few doboshes of concentration on nothing else but the task, but the other two…

"Stan and Koji are both in the same quadrant as us, at least." She sighed before adding, "But they're still too far for me to pinpoint exactly _where_. I can't feel the other three at all."

"Well, it's better than us not knowing where _any_ of them are," Coran commented, not looking away from the console, and she nodded. "And I think I'll need their help in going over the systems," he continued, voice taking on a weary edge. "Whatever corrupted the wormhole did a real number on the castle."

Zarkon's witch was behind that, no doubt. Allura had only heard rumors about her during the war, before her father had put her into stasis, but she'd finally seen Haggar herself before the others had come to rescue her.

That encounter by itself had been an ordeal and a half, and it had only gotten worse. Shiro wasn't as good as he likely thought himself to be at hiding injuries, and Eva had been attempting to face off against Zarkon by herself.

 _Not by herself,_ she corrected herself swiftly. The Red Lion had been fighting him too. If anything, Red had probably been the one to make the push to start the fight in the first place.

A series of frantic squeaks preceded the mice scurrying up to her shoulders, all in varying states of alarm. "Oh! I'm fine, don't worry," she placated, looking back and forth between the four of them. "I'm sorry for worrying you."

"Ah—a bit of good news, princess. There's a planet nearby that should be safe to stop on, for both repairs and perhaps some resupplying."

Allura paused. Coran hasn't sounded _surprised_ , not quite, but it was something close to that. "Which one is it?"

Now he turned to look at her, smiling thinly. "Alwas."

* * *

One second Blue was falling away from the castle, and the next they were free-falling—and now Jordan was opening his eyes to see the roof of the cockpit above him and the lighting being…well, not much light to begin with, given that it looked like they were underwater, and the only light was a flashing red sourced from one of Blue's many alarms.

If he had to guess, the impact with the ice (he remembered seeing ice) had thrown him out of the seat, and he'd hit his head _just_ hard enough to black out for a bit, helmet notwithstanding.

The headache he had right now was a clear enough indicator that it had made contact with something hard, probably the floor.

He pulled himself up into the chair, looking around as much as he could before asking "Guys? Any of you there?" No response came, and he hissed out a breath. _Okay Jordan, it's no big deal. They're probably just…on the surface. Yeah. Blue hit a thinner part of the ice and we fell through, and the comms are down because of the wormhole messing up like that._

He didn't know wormholes could get screwed up like that. By the sound of it, Coran hadn't either.

An experimental pull on one of Blue's handles didn't get a physical response, but her presence flickered a little, with some apology—she needed a bit to reboot. "You do that," he said, looking ahead. He couldn't see much out there, but it looked like they were sinking.

A few small blurry shapes went by, probably fish, before the Lion hit the surface of something. The seafloor, maybe. (Something was weird here. Weird in a way that was leaving him on-edge.)

Blue purred a split-second before the consoles came back online minutes later, lighting the cockpit up cerulean, replacing the blinking red of the alarm. "Okay, that's one thing down," he said aloud. "Where are we?"

The Lion hesitated, before seeming a little sheepish in reporting that her navigation system would need longer to bring back up. The same went for her weapon systems, which was first on the priority list, given that they didn't know where they were—the wormhole's energy-radiation had messed practically everything up.

"Okay, so where's everyone else?" Blue hesitated again, uncertainty rolling off of her. "Wait…they're not here?" The uncertain feeling stayed, sharpening with a confirmation.

The constant brain-static that he'd since gotten used to, that was the other four in the link, just _wasn't there_. Jordan shoved down the tight feeling in his chest that formed as soon as that thought was processed, before sitting back in the chair, and attempted to relax.

He could clearly remember the simulation training they'd first done back on Arus, when they'd first learned about that whole thing. Everyone had felt so _distinct_ —and for him to not even be able to feel it faintly like when he and Coran had gone out to the Balmera that first time…

The others had to be _far_ from where he was. It would make a lot of sense, given how they'd all spiraled off away from each other before he'd lost sight of them.

A soft purr reverberated through the cockpit around him, coinciding with a calm presence moving in to smother the panic, and Jordan forced a smile. "Hey, you really think I'd forget about you five seconds after we talked?"

Or, well, not really _talked_ , but…whatever. He still didn't get how the whole telepathic-ships thing worked, and probably never would.

"So, uh, got any ideas?"

The Lion went over her list of damages again. The internal lighting was out, and so was the artificial gravity. Not that he'd noticed the latter, given that they were on a planet with its own gravity.

There was also the matter of her interior-temperature-regulation, which was probably why he could see little clouds whenever he took a breath; the slight pointedness when she mentioned that to him hinted that it was something he could do while she started on her headlights, which would be useful while they were underwater.

Blue directed his attention to a panel under the leftmost console, which the covering to came off easily, though it took both lying flat on his stomach and some stretching to reach the two tubular crystals that were out of alignment and click them back into place.

The change in temperature was felt in seconds, though it had been _instantly_ heralded by the visor to his helmet fogging up, which was comical enough to get him to chuckle a bit out loud.

"Hey, quick question—how do those things even change color?"

Blue seemed to mull it over a bit, before pushing the idea of it having to do with the electrical currents reacting with what the crystals were composed of; they were typically orange, but direct contact with electricity made them turn blue. It was why they were commonly used out on this half of the universe.

 _I…guess that makes sense._ It definitely made things sound a lot simpler.

Outside, a wide swatch of water was abruptly illuminated when Blue tested her headlights, with the one living creature caught in the rays being quick to swim out of view—but it had been there long enough for Jordan to get a quick look at it.

For a few seconds, he wondered if the crash had given him a concussion, because whatever was out there looked like, of all the _possible_ things an alien could even look like, a mermaid.

Which prompted the thought of _If it_ is _a mermaid, and Fiona finds out I didn't get a picture of it, she's gonna kill me._

A seven-year-old Fiona might be, she could be scary when she really wanted to be. And while Jordan was _pretty sure_ that coming home with a giant space lion would be enough to offset anything, he wanted to play it safe.

Not to mention it would also depend on just _how long_ they were in space for. Jordan had a sinking feeling that they wouldn't be seeing Earth again any time soon.

"Hey, uh, Blue? These suits are fine for being underwater too, right?" The Lion gave a bemused affirmative. If they worked for being in space, they'd work for pretty much anywhere—and they had a mechanism for recycling air, so he wouldn't have to worry about that either.

The entryway to Blue's interior was sealed off before she opened her mouth, which was a good thing considering the speed at which the water came flooding in.

To go along with the fact of the ocean's surface being covered by _ice_ , the water was also _cold_. The upside was that the suits had their own temperature-regulators—that was something they _didn't_ have back home.

The visors also had an infrared setting, so the darkness wasn't a problem. That didn't mean he was seeing the fish alien anywhere, though.

 _Maybe I scared 'em off,_ he thought, looking around again—and then he heard someone say "Hello," behind him. He definitely did _not_ scream out of surprise at turning before trying to backpedal a bit, which only resulted in him flipping over because of being underwater and therefore having no footing on anything.

The fish-alien giggled a bit—they (she?) did look kind of like a mermaid, at least in the vaguely humanlike aspect, but the eyes definitely weren't human, being a solid wet-sand color. "I did not mean to startle you," she said, smiling. "I am Florona."

"Uh—I wasn't—" Jordan stammered out, before an amused purr from Blue informed him that there was no use in pretending it hadn't happened.

"Queen Luxia sent me to guide you to our village," Florona went on before he'd finished. "She would love to meet with you."

"That…sounds great, but I really have to…" He trailed off, Blue pushing the idea to follow Florona. They could probably help.

 _You sure about that? Something feels weird about this._ How did that Luxia person know he was here?

The Lion pushed a memory in response—a visit here ages and ages ago, greeted with some surprise by a largely-agricultural civilization that only had to worry about the occasional larger predator. It _should_ be safe.

"Alright then," he muttered, prompting Florona to turn and start off away from the Lion, with him making sure to stay close, because infrared or not, it was _hard to see_ down here.

Besides, maybe there was an off chance of them having a long-range communicator he could use to get in touch with the others.

* * *

Wormhole jumps in the castleship were fine. It had taken some getting used to, but they were okay. But when the wormhole had its integrity compromised ( _somehow_ ) and there was no telling where it would've left out—even _if_ Green hadn't slammed into one side of it and been promptly ejected from it—it was the exact OPPOSITE of fine.

The sickly purple color abruptly gave way to red-hued sky, and Koji just barely caught sight of the Yellow Lion also spinning out of control alongside Green before noticing the rapidly-approaching ground, just in time to brace for the impact.

It _still_ almost resulted in him being thrown out of the seat, and had him wondering just why in the world the Lions didn't come with seatbelts, inertial-dampeners or not. (Reeling as she was from the crash, he felt Green start thinking the concept over.)

 _"Well,_ that _could've—gone better,"_ he heard Stan say between breaths after a minute, the words having no shortage of sarcasm.

"I think that's an understatement," Koji agreed, making note of the flickering HUD overlays. Pulling on the handles during the plummet hadn't gotten much more than a stutter from the thrusters, and now that Green was running a system scan, everything was pretty scrambled.

Whatever had messed the wormhole up wasn't friendly to electronics; no movement, no weapons, and no navigation. Short-range scanners still worked, though, and the air on whatever planet this was happened to be safe to breathe.

Wherever it was, red sky didn't equate to sunset; if anything, it _looked_ more like noon. The ground outside was primarily a sandy expanse, with a few knotted leafless trees scattered about. The two Lions had landed close-enough together to leave a single crater that was vaguely shaped like an 8. It wasn't necessarily _warm_ wherever they'd crashed, despite the sunlight, but it wasn't too cold, either.

Koji made note of what looked to be the edge of the plateau they'd crashed on—of the spinning image he'd gotten of the surface of wherever this was, that was the only clear detail he'd gotten—before hearing the sound of a light impact on dirt.

A panel had slid open on top of the Yellow Lion's head (which was angled more sideways at the moment, given how it had crashed) to let Stan out.

"How's Yellow doing?" Koji asked.

Stan huffed a bit. "He's got a busted jaw-hinge. Communications are out, and so is pretty much everything else. Green?"

"Not much better. What about navigation?"

Stan just shook his head, pausing before saying, "I don't think anyone else is around. It's too quiet."

It took a few moments for Koji to realize what Stan meant by that, and Green went to running a long-distance scan before he could even think to ask. "Green picked up the castle's signal," he said after a moment, feeling uneasy. "It's…in the same galaxy, I think?"

There was nothing on Shiro, Eva, or Jordan; the Lions were all linked to each other on a phenomenally-deep level, but the best Green could do at the time was just point them in a general direction. The castle was _definitely_ nearby, though. Relatively speaking.

"Any idea how far they are?"

"Not really." Stan sighed at hearing that. "Well, maybe we can take a look around? Try to find out where we are?"

A shrug was the only answer Koji got before Stan turned to stand by the edge of the plateau—and he tensed visibly. "Uh. Koji?"

"Yeah?"

"I think—I think there's a town down there."

"Okay, so it's inhabited. Is this good or bad?"

"Considering that there's _other humans_ down there—"

" _Wait what_ —?!"

Koji almost overshot the distance, Stan having to grab him by the shoulder so he wouldn't fall off the edge, and the visor's binocular function kicked in almost immediately. And Stan was right.

There really was a town in the valley down there, surrounded by an orange-hued forest, and there were other humans. "Well it—we're definitely not on Earth because the sky's the wrong color, so it's gotta be one of the colonies—"

"And Elpis is the only one with a red sky," Stan cut in, stopping Koji mid-rant.

Elpis. The same one the Red Lion had flown by, before calling the wormhole that had brought them to Arus. _Of all the planets_ for them to have ended up on.

"Should—should we go down there?"

" _Should_ we?" Stan's tone was something Koji couldn't exactly put a good description to at that time, but there was a muted spike of hope that wasn't from Green, tinged with a deep-seated longing that he understood all too well.

This might be the closest they'd be to home in a while.

Green rumbled audibly from somewhere behind him, giving her own affirmative input on the question. It wasn't like they could go anywhere right now anyways.

The others probably wouldn't blame them for checking it out, right? And maybe they could even get some supplies while they were there—he mentioned the second thought aloud, which prompted "Then what're we waiting for? Let's go!" from Stan.

* * *

Pinpointing where to land the castle had been easy enough—the largest landmass the planet had featured an open plain _easily_ large enough for the ship. The sky may have been swathed with clouds, but that didn't mean it was chilly in any way. In fact, the first thing that had hit Allura when the doors of the main lift had opened was the sheer _humidity_.

The second thing was the silence. There wasn't a single soul in sight, for the entire fifteen or so doboshes she and Coran been walking. Things looked different from what Allura remembered, but given the fact that the last time they'd been here was ten-thousand decaphoebs ago, it was to be expected.

The many ruined buildings they'd seen in the distance from the field were the most markedly different in terms of design, but the souk's layout was more or less the same. "Coran, you don't think they would've abandoned the village?" she asked, noticing a few structures that had clearly collapsed and hadn't yet been repaired or replaced.

"It's entirely possible, princess," he replied quietly. "If only temporarily. This site's considered sacred. They wouldn't leave it for too long."

 _But would it have been long enough by now?_ Coming to a decision, she called "Is anyone here?" while looking around again.

For one very long dobosh, the only sound heard were a few distant birdcalls, until she heard a shuffling sound, followed by a crash; Allura pinpointed the source quickly, there being three Scrubs in a building that had its missing wall covered by what was likely meant to be an awning. They froze when they saw her, and she quickly put her hands up in a nonthreatening posture.

"We're not going to hurt you," she reassured. "We're only here to trade for some supplies."

What felt like a few doboshes crawled by before they glanced at each other, one of them saying "You'll have to run everything by the elders first."

Caution, with a touch of hostility. Given what the paladins had told her when they'd first met, Allura simply couldn't be surprised by it.

The trail up to the temple that served as a gathering place was the same, at least, though it also gave her a clearer view of the destruction that the Galra had wrought—the amphitheater was pocked with craters, and larger chunks of stone were still left strewn across the area below the stands.

The Scrub that led them there murmured for them to wait at the entrance before disappearing inside, returning shortly after with three others. "Yes? What do you want?" one of them asked shortly.

Coran took over from there, thankfully, and Allura let her attention wander back toward the settlement.

This was where the Red Lion had been hidden away for so long. There was no chance he would have come here on his own—if anything, Allura would have thought that he would have been on a volcanic planet somewhere—but if her suspicion was correct…he'd brought passengers with him here.

One of whom who had been here before.

She excused herself quietly before heading back down the steps, making note of the activity slowly resuming around the village, now that they were deemed not a danger. Their eyes followed her, however, which was partially why she wandered away from the clustered buildings.

The oblong structures gave way to a grassy field on either side, and then larger stone structures arranged around a lake, all in varying condition. Some looked untouched, while others had all but collapsed entirely. She did not miss the singed chunks of metal lying forgotten away from the paths, either.

Further from the buildings, the grass grew longer, reaching waist-length when the stone trail arced along the cliff bordering the ocean.

Allura stopped at a curve in the path, looking out at the ocean. She recalled having walked this way, the last time she'd been here. There seemed to be a rock formation in the ocean missing, but it was otherwise the same.

Right up to a chittering sound breaking her out of her thoughts and having her turn, coming face-to-face with what, by all means, was a giant beetle.

It took every ounce of her self-control to not cry out, instead focusing the burst of energy into tensing in case she had to run, while also wondering just how in the world something of its size had managed to move so quietly. The beetle chittered again, sounding almost questioning, before seeming to shrink back slightly.

At the same time, a Scrub burst out of the grass, panting out an apology. She was wearing a murky-yellow shawl over a vest, and was holding onto a short rough-hewn staff that had a few pieces of sea-glass strung to the top of it, and while Allura couldn't be certain, she seemed younger than the others seen earlier.

"He usually keeps his distance from everyone," she went on, looking up at Allura. "At least, everyone he doesn't see too often." She paused. "You…weren't here for the Pre-Selections, were you?"

"No, we weren't," she replied, slightly put-off, before an idea came to her. "He was with one of the pilots?"

The Scrub nodded. "The Nourasian team. Both of them—they both went missing." The way she said the last two words had another implication, as did her grip tightening on her staff. "I've been looking after him since."

Another quiet screech had Allura look at the beetle again, hesitating before reaching to pat his head a little. She knew from the mice that animals and other creatures each had their own kind of sentience, and she had little doubt that this one understood what had occurred.

Yet another peaceful world, left confused and in shambles by the Galra, even with the Aenidesian Blockade—and then more, in the families of the pilots who were now held prisoner somewhere in the universe.

To the side, the Scrub abruptly facepalmed. "Forgot—my name's Mariposa."

Allura smiled a little. "Allura. It's nice to meet you."

Mariposa nodded, before frowning slightly. "You know, you kind of remind me of an old story we have."

At that, the princess mentally stilled. "What story?"

"A really long time ago, I guess there was some sort of guardian that fell from the sky and hid under the ocean. And the people that came with them, the pictures aren't really that great and they're faded, but they kind of looked like you."

"What happened to those people?" she asked.

Mariposa shrugged. "Dunno. All three of them were buried not too far from here when they died though."

She'd known it was coming. She'd known since she'd first woken up from cryosleep—but hearing it _hurt_. "If—if you don't mind—could you show me where?"

* * *

There was something weirdly surreal about it, at least in Stan's opinion.

The excitement he'd had about it had petered out after the first few weird looks they'd gotten—because who _wouldn't_ give two people in armored outfits weird looks—which had been enough to convince them both to borrow something to use as cloaks while they were there.

But it was still seeing other _humans_ after nothing but aliens for almost a month.

First thing was first, after Koji had stopped to mention it: getting some currency that'd work. Given that they really couldn't stay for too long, as much as part of Stan wanted to, they'd have to resort to something quick.

Specifically, petty theft.

The good news was that Elpis was more urban when it came to the few towns it had, given that it was an older colony, which meant more people of varying age groups. Including some kids maybe around Jordan's age who left their bags in the back of the truck now parked at the edge of the nearby lot near an arcade.

Yeah, he felt bad for doing it, and Yellow was giving him a mental pout for it, but they really should've known better. _We'll pay 'em back someday, okay?_

A soundless sigh came in response; Yellow knew there was a good reason for it all, as much as he didn't like it, but he pushed for taking pictures of the name-tags on the bags. Koji, ever the polite one, took a pen and a piece of paper to write a short apology note for the missing currency.

The second piece of good news was that the on-duty clerk for the nearest convenience store barely batted an eye at them, being engrossed in whatever magazine she was reading.

Canned vegetables were a definite, as was anything preserved or dried in general in terms of food.

Toothbrushes were on the list too, since those were back on Alwas—the castleship lacked any, only having some sort of mouthwash that tasted like something between a raspberry, a peach, and a pineapple. Toothpaste went with that.

A few bottles of sunscreen, some of those little tissue packs, a new razor because that was back on Alwas too, and since this was one of those rare ones that had some cheap clothes, some of those too; Stan thought to grab a few the kids might like. And some new boots for himself.

He wasn't expecting to see Koji staring at a shelf displaying a few seed packets, looking like he was seriously debating on picking a few up. "There's a greenhouse near Green's hangar," he'd explained quietly at being asked. "I figured it—I don't know, might be worth a try?" Stan looked at the shelf for a few seconds before shrugging and picking a few. He didn't know anything about gardening, but Coran might.

Not to mention having some familiar food out in space would be nice, if it worked.

It looked like they'd gotten mostly the same things, though Koji had picked up a few newspapers too. "Is that everything?" he asked.

"I think so," Stan replied, thinking it over. The clerk looked surprised for a few seconds at seeing them, made one little comment on the _weird getup_ , but otherwise didn't ask anything.

Though Koji did get another weird look when he abruptly paled a few shades, hissing out a breath, and Stan had to try very hard to not jump when Yellow went tense all of a sudden. The idea of _being found_ came across pretty damn clear, and Stan was silently berating himself for not thinking of it sooner.

They crashed onto a colony planet in giant metal cats. _Of course_ that would get some sort of response, given that the two ships were _obviously alien in origin_.

"Okay, so we'll just—have to wait them out?" Koji suggested once they'd made it out of the town and to the alcove where the speeders had been left, the borrowed sheets being put back near where they'd been found. "I mean, at least—maybe if we get in there fast enough—"

Yellow shot down that idea both hard and quick enough to an involuntary exclamation out of Stan, and Koji had flinched equally hard. "What's going on over there?" he asked in a mutter. The Lion paused, still tense, before mentioning one specific part of his damage diagnostics.

He had a barrier crystal out of alignment, which meant he had no particle-barrier. And that wasn't covered by the self-repair protocols, if only because of the sheer odds against it happening to begin with.

The response team that Elpis' governing officials had sent had since figured that they weren't going to get anywhere with Green, so they were focusing on Yellow. Including bringing in some bigger vehicles in.

"Well _fuck_ ," he muttered, before saying, "Uh, Koji? We might have to steal my Lion back."

Koji sighed heavily. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

* * *

Eva woke with a jolt, scrambling to her feet before really thinking anything through, stumbling while hissing in a breath at the lightheadedness that followed, deciding to sit down in the chair before looking up.

They'd obviously crashed, given the crater Red was currently lying in. That was also probably how she'd ended up on the floor. "Red? How're you doing?" she asked after realizing that the screens were all dark.

A small flicker of irritation not directed at her came in response—the short answer to that was _not well_. He could move, sure, but he had a _lot_ of self-repairing to do. "You start on that," she murmured, standing up again. _That was one heck of a fight._

And then some.

Zarkon had been the one to take Voltron apart at the start there, like it was nothing, with just the…just the mind-link. That he could even get into the link like that in the first place was definitely _not good_.

Something else hit her then. During that fight, when she'd found herself thinking about the day that her dad had left her at the boarding school and about her mother's crash—she hadn't been thinking about either of those things _at all_. Or anything even close to them, for that matter.

But if it hadn't been her, then… _nope_ , she wasn't going there. Not right now. It was bad enough that she already had five other things at a time in her head, she didn't want to think about there being a chance for _anything else_ getting in. (All that thought did was set off another warning bell in her head, but she couldn't tell exactly _why_.)

Red growled a little; the irritation became noticeable again, and part of it was at her remark this time, but it also seemed to be at least partially directed at the Black Lion.

 _The Black Lion_. She could _just_ remember seeing Black being flung in the same general direction as Red, now that she was thinking about it, and—

 _"Eva?"_

The comm crackling made her jump. "Wha'—Shiro! Where are you?"

 _"About thirty meters behind you. There's a canyon—can you move the Red Lion at all?"_

"Well, yeah. A bit, I think. He can't fly right now though."

 _"That's good enough. Bring him into the canyon."_

Her Lion's motions were stiffer than usual as he stood and turned around to walk into the canyon Shiro had mentioned—easily wide enough for them both to fit in with some space between, narrowing toward the top so that it looked more like a crevice from above.

Eva paused to pat one of the side consoles a bit after standing again, murmuring "You take it easy, handsome," before starting out. Red directed her toward the secondary exit—a hatch above the pilot seat—before she could go through the doors. A wave of dry heat hit her as soon as it was open, and she squinted against the sunlight that was directly ahead of them now.

Further beyond the crater Red had made, Eva could see another, larger one, which suggested that Black's landing had been rougher than theirs. She winced a bit in sympathy before finishing pulling herself up on top of Red's head, then becoming aware of something like a faint stinging sensation in her right side. She didn't notice any difference when she experimentally poked at the spot it seemed to be coming from, though.

Getting down from Red was a little trickier than getting up to the escape hatch—she opted to slide down his back a bit before relying on the jetpack to slow her fall, taking the chance to look around again. The canyon went on behind the two Lions, too dark for her to see anything, and she'd already gotten a look at the outside—but she couldn't shake the suspicion of them _not being alone_ here.

"Shiro?" she called out, not seeing him anywhere.

"Over here!" Eva paused, confused at the strain in his voice, coming from the other side of Black. She was about halfway around the bigger Lion when the stinging feeling got a little stronger; it felt dull, like a bad bruise, and Eva had half a mind to go back into Red just to make sure that there wasn't a mark there or anything.

She hadn't really thought about the size difference between the two Lions until now, either—Black was an absolute _mountain_ of a ship. Red huffed in amusement at the comparison, and she turned her head to stick her tongue out at him.

She saw Shiro after turning around Black's paw, sitting down by a circle of rocks that featured a bunch of dry-looking sticks in the middle, and was holding his actively-glowing prosthetic near it. "You're…trying to start a fire?" she guessed.

"Trying to," he repeated, wincing a little. "Not having much luck though. You were out for a few minutes. I was starting to get worried."

Eva shrugged a little, before realizing something. "H-Hang on, where's everyone else?"

Shiro hissed in a breath before saying "I don't know. We were all separated when the wormhole started falling apart, and Black can't get a signal from anyone."

"…oh." So _that_ was the different thing—there were only two background-noise sources in her head right then. "Okay, what about where we are?"

There was a pause of a few seconds, Shiro looking momentarily distracted, before replying "The planet's called Epona-6. And there's a base not too far from here."

And that was probably why he'd asked her to move Red under cover. Eva looked up toward the top of the canyon, then at the walls of it, before saying "I'm gonna climb up there for a better look around," and heading back out.

The cliff face went on for what was probably miles in either direction, but there were some thick patches of some kind of moss or lichen scattered over the ledges, sticking to the rock hard enough for her to use it to scale it for at least part of the way.

After that, a thin ledge trailed along the wall and into the canyon. She paused for a second when she felt a brief third mental touch, a sort of wordless _be careful_ making up its entirety, and she eyed the dim-eyed Black Lion briefly before continuing.

The ledge widened a little eventually, along with the canyon narrowing, all while sloping upwards more, before giving way to a plateau that dropped off abruptly after a minute's worth of walking, and she saw the base Shiro had mentioned almost immediately, off sitting on another plateau, with a ravine between it and the one she was on. Eva could barely make out a river far below.

The base itself had one narrow building with one addendum to the right, with angled arches making up the primary part's roof. To the left, there was a high fence, though the base's plateau being at a lower altitude meant it didn't matter much. Within the confines of the fence were multiple aliens, all wearing outfits like the one they'd first seen Shiro in.

Eva swallowed reflexively at that observation, and she took a deep breath. _Okay, so there are some prisoners there. Shiro's probably gonna want to know about that._ At the same time, one part of her was curious in a dark sort of way—what if she recognized any of them?

Her visor's binocular function kicked in as soon as she thought about it, helpfully zooming in on the base. The first group of aliens she saw weren't familiar in any way, but the second group—all staying to what shade there was provided by the wall—were five Scrubs. One of which she recognized as the second person she'd raced on Alwas, and a second as the one that had been manning their star-racer's defenses.

Further to the side was someone unmistakable: Rush. And a little further to the left was…was…

Eva flinched, shutting her eyes for a few seconds before shaking her head, looking to the other end of the field. She remembered Ceres after a few seconds, among a few other vaguely-familiar faces.

Then she froze, all the air leaving her lungs at once. She blinked once, twice, took off her helmet to rub at her eyes before putting it back on, and looking harder to make sure she wasn't imagining it.

" _Rick_?"

* * *

So, uh. S8 was a trainwreck, though I think at least half of us suspected it'd go that direction. The short story is that VLD plot is still going to be followed up until the end of S6, but everything beyond that?  
 **Out the proverbial window, and then set on fire.** There's also going to be more divergences before then, and altered details for things I feel canon didn't do good enough with.

The events also prompted me to look long and hard at the early chapters, which led to me deciding to rework a few things.  
The first four chapters have been updated a bit, and Chapter 6 has been completely rewritten. 12 might also get that treatment eventually, and 11's going to be getting a reworked ending segment. Other details have been altered here and there for everything else, including some details being retconned. So if you haven't already, I advise a re-read, otherwise you might get confused.


	15. Scattered, Part II

**Arc I: Race's End**

 **Scattered, Part II**

Eva wasn't sure how long she kept staring, until a breeze startled her out of it. She didn't bother with taking the slow road this time, instead jumping down and using the jetpack to slow her fall—and doing that was actually kind of _fun_ , though the adrenaline rush probably had something to do with it.

She didn't waste time in explaining why she was rushing either, when she'd come around the last curve Black's front paw created: "I have to get a closer look at that place!"

Shiro stuttered at looking away from the now-present campfire, startled, before shooting it down. "No! Not by yourself," the last bit was added when she started to protest, standing up, flinching with a hiss before moving his hand to his side. It wasn't before Eva saw _why_ he did that, though. The phantom-pain in her side suddenly made sense.

"You have a—uh," she stammered out, pointing for a second before part of her realized that would probably come off as rude, gluing her arms to her sides.

Shiro glanced down at it. "It's just a scratch."

"I'm pretty sure scratches aren't supposed to glow!" Whatever had made those purple-glowing "scratches" had cut right through his armor's undersuit, and the skin around them had a bluish-black hue to it that _probably_ meant something bad.

"It's way too dangerous for you to go there by yourself," Shiro insisted, taking a step forward—and promptly stopping when a growl echoed throughout the canyon, before looking up at the Black Lion.

"Besides," Eva went on. "They might have some…some first-aid kits in that base. They probably won't notice one gone." Shiro looked back at her, and the standoff lasted for what felt like hours, before he sighed.

"Alright, you have a point. You can go—as long as you tell me why you wanted to go there in the first place."

Eva bit her lip. _Should've seen that coming._ Well, so long as it helped sell the point… "They have some aliens there—a-and Rick's down there too."

Shiro's eyes widened. "Did you see any other humans?"

"I…no, I didn't. But maybe—maybe there's more inside?"

He nodded slowly, before saying "It might be a better idea to wait until it gets darker before you go too close."

"I'll have to find a way to cross that canyon first," she said. "But that's a good idea."

The second good idea was, instead of climbing the moss and vines again, to use the Black Lion as a sort of giant, lion-shaped stepstool/ladder. She leaned forward a little at Shiro asking, thankfully, which let Eva keep a good-enough foothold until she could get to the ledge above.

The ravine stretched on and on to the right, but to the left she could make out what looked like a natural rock bridge crossing it. "Now how am I supposed to get over there without it taking forever?" she mused, glaring out at it.

Red wearily surfaced in her head, pointing out the smaller vehicle in his cargo bay, and Eva promptly facepalmed. Shiro didn't ask anything when she came back to get into her Lion, at least.

Dusk was coming quickly, with the sky going from hazy white to muted orange over the time it took for her to reach the rock bridge. During that time, the sense of trepidation that had sprung up the moment she'd realized that she _hadn't_ been seeing things had only gotten stronger, and by the time she had to stop her speeder by a rock overhang because it was still too light, Eva felt like she could hardly breathe.

"C'mon Eva, keep it together," she muttered to herself at getting out of the vehicle, leaning back against the rock. "You just need a game plan now."

For a moment, she wished Jordan was here—he probably would've known how to do this. But she had no idea where he was, or Stan and Koji for that matter.

Her Lion's presence flickered again, with some concern. "I'm okay," she muttered, before asking "How about you?" He went contemplative for a few seconds, before giving a few impressions; he was just over halfway done with repairs, but would need some more time to recharge.

Eva didn't say anything in response to that, instead sitting down in the shadow cast by the rock. If she had to be completely honest with herself, she'd never really put much thought into the whole mind-link thing, aside from when it was an all-encompassing detail. It hadn't been much more than another little problem on a whole stack of problems.

Now that most of it wasn't there, she couldn't help but feel like its absence was something more like a black hole.

Red purred then, relaying a scan's results—the Blue Lion was roughly one galaxy away from them, which meant Jordan really wasn't that far away at all. She smiled, looking up toward a few clouds drifting past. "Thanks Red."

There was probably another two hours or three before the sun was fully down, and Red had circled back on his report to the bit on _recharging_ , giving a thinly-veiled hint which she scowled at. "But I'm not—"

She tried to stifle the yawn that decided to happen right there. She really did. But it was still noticed, and he was pushing the idea of unconsciousness not counting as actual sleep.

Eva groaned, slumping to the ground. "Ugh, _fine_. Just…just wake me up when it gets dark." The Lion purred again, and she shut her eyes.

 _Don't worry Rick. I'll find a way to get you out of there. Somehow…_

* * *

Three stacks of stone weathered smooth by both time and environment, with worn engravings in two languages for two, and one for the last, stood by one another on a cliff overlooking the sea below.

Terlar had been one of the castle's cooks, and the one who always had set aside a basket's worth of juniberry tarts for her whenever he made any. Even after the war had started, he'd managed to greet everyone with a smile.

Merla—and she'd had to ask Mariposa to translate the engraving for her—had been one of Allura's closest friends, even after she'd started her training to be an alchemist.

And even though there was only faded colors to the stones to set them aside from the other two, it was otherwise a humble grave for the last queen of Altea.

Allura wasn't entirely sure how long she stayed there in silence, just that only a soft rain starting was enough to stir her from her thoughts. "I'm sorry," she murmured, standing and brushing dust from her outfit. "I hadn't meant to stay here that long."

"It's alright," the native replied, sliding off of the rock she'd been sitting on. "It's nice getting away from everyone else now and then."

Mariposa went off in a different direction when they'd neared the buildings that had been meant for the race teams, shortly before the rain started picking up. Thankfully, Allura spotted Coran waving her over from inside one that had its doors left open. "I'd been about to go looking for you before the sky opened up," he said once she'd reached the safety of the roof. "It was a hard bargain, but we can get a few of the storerooms on the lower floors cleared out while we're here!"

Allura frowned slightly, confused—those storerooms were mostly spare scrap parts and old electronics, and she last remembered Alwas as being willingly non-technological. Coran's smile looked slightly more forced when she mentioned it. "That did come up, yes." He coughed, before adding, "It would seem that recent events have a hand in them starting to move away from those practices. It won't happen quickly by any means, but it's going to start."

That wasn't surprising either.

His tone turned to something more gentle when he asked, "Where are they?"

Deep breath. "There's a path leading along the cliff. You can't miss it."

He nodded, before looking more into the building. "Now, I can't be entirely sure, given the rain, but the marks on the door kind of look like our paladins' racing ship."

Allura looked at him for a moment, silently thankful for the subject-change, before briefly stepping back into the deluge to see that he was right—it did look like the ship, if only from the front. "This must have been where they stayed during the competition," she said, looking toward the stairs before making a decision.

There was a fine coating of dust over the furniture up the stairs and in the room in the back, as well as on the computer screen in that same room. Coran followed her up, not saying anything, though she could practically feel the questioning look.

"Do you think they'd appreciate having some of their things waiting for them on the castle?" she asked.

"Well, who would turn down having a piece of home out in space?" Coran smiled, a soft melancholy edge to it.

"We better find some rags first, then," she said, starting toward what she believed to be an elevator. "It's a little breezy even with the rain—we don't want dust flying everywhere when we move everything."

This would hopefully be a nice surprise for them to come back to.

* * *

Waking up felt weird. Weird, partially because his head felt like it was full of cotton balls, but mostly because he couldn't remember falling asleep to begin with.

He was definitely still underwater—there was still the telltale movement-resistance when he tried sitting up, along with that motion in itself being kind of awkward.

Then Blue mentally hit him like a tidal wave, alarm and concern being first and foremost. "H-Hey, I'm fine," he stammered out, frowning. "Just…really, really confused. What happened?"

She didn't know either. Just that he'd gotten all hazy once he'd gotten close to the one major settlement on this part of the planet, and hadn't responded to anything she'd done. Jordan groaned. _I_ knew _I had a bad feeling about this…_

"So the stories are true, then."

He stifled a flinch, and turned toward the source of the voice. Standing by the doorway (or not really, since it looked like this was more of a cave system) was an alien that more than likely had gills, since he didn't have any sort of gear. He had a few features that made Jordan think of a manta ray, though he was humanoid and had two short antenna on his head, and was mostly a shade of something between navy-blue and charcoal.

"I'd heard that the Voltron Paladins could communicate with their Lions over a great distance, but I never thought I'd be able to see it in action," he went on, smiling just enough to show off sharp teeth.

"Uh…"

The alien paused, and then facepalmed. "Ugh, where's my head…I'm Isond—unofficial leader of…well, of the remaining free people of Plegia. And you are?"

"Jordan," he replied slowly. Blue helpfully supplied that Plegia was the name of the planet, but now her touch had something of a hopeful shock to it. _You know this guy?_

A pause, before a half-negative. She knew the species, and was relieved that they were still around.

Isond was watching him again, more contemplatively this time, before saying "Since I heard you wondering, we got you out of the palace. Luxia had some pretty tight security on you, too."

And the confusion was back. "H-Hold on a second, I don't even remember getting _near_ the city!"

Now the alien grimaced. "Just like everyone else that doesn't go prepared. Come on—we'll explain things to you. Don't worry about walking, we're far enough down for it to be more like the surface."

The tunnels were lit by some kind of glowing algae, with a few spots of seaweed here and there. There were a few side-caves along the way too, one being full of weapons and another looking like a kitchen of sorts. Not to mention one filled with, for some weird reason, nothing but jellyfish.

"There's not many of us left, unfortunately," Isond was saying. "There's myself, two other Nalquodians, and three Plegians. Those three are the ones that got you here."

"Plegians—you mean the mermaid people?"

"I'm not sure what this _mermaid_ you speak of is, but they're restricted to being aquatic, if that's what it means."

Isond motioned to a larger side-cave, the occupants of which looking up as soon as they noticed the movement. "You're awake! Excellent!" one of them exclaimed, throwing…two of his tentacles up. "Now we can get to planning the big mission!"

"Now, now, Blumfump, we have to go through explanations for Jordan here first," Isond said. "First of all, I believe introductions are in order. You know me already, and I just mentioned Blumfump there."

"Plaxum," a cyan-colored Plegian spoke up. "And that's Swirn." The third, spotted one made a slow hand-motion, looking bored. The two Nalquodians—one orange and the other brown—introduced themselves as Maiph and Ruta.

"Okay, so what the heck is going on here?" Jordan asked. Isond had said something about them being the last _free_ people, and that didn't have a very good implication.

Isond frowned. "That's what we want to know too. A few phoebs ago, things were fine, and then, one quintant, I suddenly found myself at some of the volcanic vents some ways away from the city. It's likely that I had been caught up in a tidal current, but the main thing is that I didn't remember anything between that and coming-to there."

"The same thing happened to me and Swirn," Plaxum spoke up, Swirn nodding a bit.

"We were out on a hunting trip when whatever this was started," Maiph said, crossing his arms. "We saw everyone acting weird from the cliffs overlooking the city, so we just stayed away."  
"And I got abducted by those two!" Blumfump supplied cheerily, pointing at Plaxum and Swirn, who gave him unamused looks.

The latter rolled her eyes, before asking "What's the last thing _you_ remember?"

Jordan thought about it for a few seconds. "I was following someone to the city. And then…" He paused, trying hard to think of anything other than the _haze_ for a few seconds, before giving up and finishing "And then waking up."

"Exactly." Blumfump nodded like he'd just had something proven. "I'm telling you, the queen has something to do with all of this!"

"But we don't know for sure." Isond crossed his arms, giving the Plegian a pointed look. "And infiltration is out of the question, given that we only have one form of immunity to whatever it is happening that's altogether too obvious. Things had been looking pretty hopeless…"

"And then Maiph and I saw the Blue Lion crash through the ice," Ruta said softly.

Jordan stared at her for a few seconds, before standing up straighter at realizing where this was going. "Uh, h-hang on a second. I just started at this whole _paladin_ thing not too long ago. I'm not sure if I—"

Isond interrupted with a wave of his hand. "Anxiety is one's worst enemy. If you go in thinking you won't be able to do it, then you really won't. So you just have to think otherwise." Blue jumped onto that idea, and Jordan nodded a bit after a few seconds.

"Now, if we're done with all of this," Blumfump said, a little snippily. "With the Lion, we might finally be able to rush in there and grab the queen!"

"If only because that's our only lead on the cause, since she's still in command of everything," Maiph said, before stepping over to look at Jordan more closely, muttering "Maybe that murang-colored one'll fit."

"A murang _what_ now?" Jordan asked, lost again.

"Jellyfish," Plaxum supplied, shrugging. "It's…well, we're not really sure how or why, but for some reason they block whatever's causing all of this. Just a warning, they sting a bit. And you _might_ have a reaction to it."

"Uh…" That really didn't sound like a thing he was looking forward to. _Hey, uh, Blue? Any chance you'd be able to block…whatever's going on?_

The Lion went distant for a second, before giving a sort of mental shrug leaning towards a yes. She couldn't be too sure, but she was aware of _some_ sort of signal coming from somewhere in the city, and she just had to add a filter for it to her shields. Whatever it was, it wasn't a machine causing it.

So long as it meant a jellyfish didn't have to go anywhere near his head. Then Jordan processed that last piece of information. _Wait, you mean it's not a machine?_

Denial. It was definitely a living thing causing it. Blue just wasn't sure _what_ it was, though.

Isond looked thoughtful at that information, having just shrugged at the information of the jellyfish not being required, before they all started out toward where Blue was. "That might simplify things, in the end. Easier to take a living thing down than a machine, since those can be rebuilt."

To the side, Swirn fidgeted a bit with an uncomfortable look, while Maiph tightened the grip he had on his spear.

Thankfully, Isond changed the subject. "The Blue Lion told you that, didn't it?" Jordan nodded, and the Nalquodian chuckled. "The Lions really are marvels. I'm just glad I got to be part of the generation to see their return."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Jordan asked. "I-I mean, I thought—most people think they're just fairy-tales."

Isond just shrugged, smiling. "The Lions are a part of my people's history, actually. In fact, my great-great-great-great-great grandfather was the paladin of the Blue Lion, in his time."

Jordan promptly tripped on a rock, and Blue did the mental equivalent of a spit-take. "Wait, seriously?"

He nodded, looking distant now. "It's part of why we're refugees here on Plegia. Nalquod is pretty deep in Galra space, and after what Zarkon did to Altea…well, I suppose it's safer to not take chances in situations like that."

* * *

Her and the other two on her team getting transferred to the Garrison base on _Elpis_ in itself had been a blindside. Honestly, part of her had a feeling Iverson only suggested them to have the commanding officer here deal with them instead.

It wasn't all bad, though. If anything, though, it just let her pick up on even more alien radio chatter. (The warning notice they'd gotten before the actual transfer had also been what finally prompted her to send an e-mail to her mom back home. She hadn't gotten a response back yet, probably because of the distance, but she was _not_ looking forward to it.)

She'd known as soon as someone had called in two unknown spacecraft crash-landing on the mesa a few miles from the nearest town that something big was happening—especially when all cadets were told to stay in their dorms. Not like she'd listened to that, though. She'd just gone up to the roof instead, computer in hand.

The level of excitement everyone was showing meant it _probably_ wasn't anything Crog-related, which was a relief because Lance really wasn't as good at flying things as he said he was yet.

The security passcodes here were a little trickier than the ones back home, but they were still no match for Katie Holt—and for a few seconds, she just stared at the security feed. "A _lion_?" she muttered, squinting at it. It was bright-yellow and built like a tank, had four legs, and both a defined head and tail.

It also didn't look like _anything_ in the books, though to be honest, _giant robotic lion_ wasn't anything like how a typical alien ship would look, or at least her definition of an alien ship. It was enough to get her to bring her other gear out from the hiding place she'd set up for it all.

The first thing her listening device picked up on was the communications between the base and the crew still at the crash site—that got filtered out after a few seconds.

The second thing she got was only recognized as French because it was the Coalition delegate's native language. Katie didn't recognize the voices, either—and one of the sources was _close_.

She stood up on her toes and looked around, squinting at everything. There was nothing out of the ordinary, at least until she looked up at the cliff overlooking the base.

There, on a ledge, was a glimmer of white. A closer look with binoculars showed that there was someone up there, and that the uniform they had on was accented in the same shade of yellow as the lion-ship. Her grip tightened on the binoculars, and she let out a sharp breath. _Bingo._

Against what would probably be better judgement, she shoved everything sans her computer back into its hiding place, and made use of some conveniently-placed pipes to get to the ground.

An unknown alien craft inexplicably shaped like a lion, that might just be piloted by a human? It was so absurdly _out there_ to begin with, but that in itself meant it could be a _lead_.

There were a few times she tripped over rocks or tree roots in the darkness, but there was enough light for her to avoid any of the big drops on the way up the cliff.

She was out of breath by the time she reached the ledge, almost stumbling to a stop, and the supposed-pilot froze as soon as he noticed her—and he was _definitely human_. There was a pause, before she dimly heard a concerned _"Que se passe-t-il?"_ from the other person.

The pilot hissed something equally-not-understandable back, and then Katie remembered the oh-so _crucial_ detail that she didn't know French. _Well…maybe he knows English._ "Are you the pilot of the—the lion?"

He froze, eyes darting from side to side, before saying something else to whoever he'd been talking to, and slowly nodding. So he did understand her.

"Is there anyone else out there?" she asked next, a hopeful note in her voice. "I mean—do you know anyone named Sam Holt? Or—or Matt Holt?"

He stared at her, ( _there was recognition in his eyes there_ ) biting his lip, before going glassy-eyed for a few seconds. Then, slowly and with an obvious accent, he said "Not…not directly. Shiro does."

Katie stood up straighter. "Shiro? As in _Takashi Shirogane_? He's alive?!"

"Y-Yes?"

" _I knew it_!" she shouted, punching the air. "Is he here too?"

"I—no." The pilot swallowed. "I don't know where he is. We—we were split up."

"Oh." She hesitated a moment, before saying "But you're not alone here. You were talking to someone."

He made a weird choked sound, and she heard the second voice say something that sounded like a name.

 _Name_. Her palm promptly met her face, before saying "I'm Pidge." Not her real name, of course, but her pseudonym—her brother's nickname for her. Better safe than sorry.

The pilot kept giving her a wary stare, until the person over the comm said something else. The stare was maintained for five more seconds after that before he sighed, saying "Stan." Then he asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Me? Nothing. Don't have a reason to. I mean—you're trying to get back to your team, right? And you can't do that as long as your…lion is in that base."

"…right."

"So here's the deal. I help you get the lion, on one condition." Stan nodded, prompting her to finish, "You give me information. I want to know _everything_."

* * *

In retrospect, they were _freakishly_ lucky that the one person that found them—a cadet, if the uniform was any indication—was willing to help them. Stan personally had been against telling this kid anything, but Koji had pushed for getting any sort of help because they _needed_ it—especially after she'd (that was a guess purely on voice, but Stan wasn't going to make any assumptions) mentioned being able to knock out the base's security in three minutes flat.

It also really helped that Yellow had enough English figured out to help Stan sound out words. He was pretty sure he'd gone and butchered a few pronunciations, but the explanation was taken quietly, with only a few nods here and a few questions there.

"So let me get this straight," Pidge started. "You were originally on a planet called Alwas for some interplanetary star-racing competition, and then these…Galra aliens barged in looking for part of a superweapon called Voltron, which the lion in the base is part of."

"Yes," he replied. "It was the Red Lion on Alwas, though."

"Right, and there's…what, five of them?"

"Five."

"And the only reason you knew it was there was because of Shiro." Stan nodded. Honestly, he _really_ didn't want to know what might've happened if Shiro hadn't been there to warn them.

Pidge stood up from where she'd sat down. "Well, that's definitely a better explanation than what the Garrison put out." She rolled her eyes with a mutter of " _Pilot error_ my ass," before adding "You and your friend have some sort of distraction in mind, right?"

"Well, sort of?"

The idea was for Koji to rush in with the speeder to get back into Green, and then _pretend_ to be threatening. Just to get some of the scarier people away from the base.

He coughed a bit after explaining, before adding "I'm not—I was just a mechanic before…this."

Pidge shrugged. "And? It sounds like a solid plan to me. Everyone's been on edge lately—it's been radio silence since a few weeks ago, after…after what happened on Alwas, I think. Shouldn't take too much to get everyone cleared to fly a fighter in the air."

"How do you know that?"

At that, she smirked. "I have some of my own gear. I can get signals from halfway across the galaxy if I really wanted to." Cue falter. "I picked up on a few SOS calls when all that happened, I think. I mean—it's what they sounded like. I couldn't understand a word of any of it."

That made sense, in a scary way. Stan glanced up at the sky, noting a few clouds moving in, before saying "Hey, Koji? I think now might be a good time to start that distraction."

 _"Alright, I see why. Here goes…"_ The last two words were muttered, and one minute that felt more like an hour dragged by, before an alarm started sounding from the base, followed by the Green Lion racing by overhead, soon followed by a cluster of aircraft that had previously been parked near the base. Stan heard a quiet gasp from Pidge; her eyes were fixed on the Lion flying around in a wide arc.

"They are pretty cool," he said, though the _Arrow_ still had its own special spot in his opinion.

"Yeah," she replied in a mutter, blinking, before sitting down again and opening up her computer, with another alarm started going off shortly after. "Now just give me a minute, and the security cameras will all be off. You would _not_ believe how fast a fake halogen leak would get a building empty."

"Actually, I think I could," he replied, seeing people file out below. Then an idea hit him. "H-Hang on a second. Do you have something I could write on?"

She side-eyed him before tapping a few things into the keyboard, before turning the computer toward him, showing a blank document. The address was down on it in seven seconds. "The manager there—if you could…let him know me and Koji are okay, I'd—I'd appreciate it."

"So long as you keep an eye out for the rest of the Kerberos mission out there."

"We'll do that. We're looking for some people, too."

They split up at getting closer to the base, Pidge heading off toward where everyone else was while Stan went for the nearest doorway in. Like Pidge said it would, it opened automatically.

A left, two rights, and then down a staircase, just like she said, and then he found himself at a large room with an equally-large hangar door taking up the ceiling space, with Yellow being laid out in the center. He perked up at seeing him there, happily reporting that he'd fixed his jaw-hinge. "I'll get that barrier-crystal fixed when we're out of here," Stan muttered, running in, before reporting "Alright, I got Yellow."

 _"Okay, think you can get out here so we can go?"_ Koji asked in response. _"They're starting to shoot at Green."_

Nothing was said about leaving the base, so Stan went the straightforward route—having Yellow plow through the hangar door. And boy did _that_ set off some alarms.

The first thing was rushing to pick up Yellow's speeder and the supplies that were crammed into the aforementioned vehicle, and then it was just them both heading up and away from Elpis.

It wasn't long before the aircraft following them had to bank away, not being meant to reach the upper atmosphere.

Koji sighed when they were a safe distance away, saying _"Kind of wishing I thought to…I don't know, write a letter to send home or something before all this."_

"I know what you mean," Stan agreed. "Though I did ask the kid if she could get in touch with Miguel. Let him know we're okay, at least."

Koji frowned over the screen. _"You sure she'll do that?"_

He shrugged a bit. "Honestly, I'm not sure, but…she asked if we could keep an eye out for the other two that had been on Shiro's team. She knew their names, so maybe she knew them."

 _"So, a trade-off."_

"Yeah, something like that. Now, I have to fix this barrier crystal…think you could figure out where exactly the castle is?"

 _"Probably? I'll get on that."_

Reaching the crooked crystal took some stretching and arm-twisting, but it was eventually put back into place. At the same time, he heard a muttered _"You've got to be_ kidding me _,"_ from Koji.

"What? You figure out where they are?" Stan asked, getting up.

That got a weak laugh. _"Yeah. They're on Alwas."_

"…I'm sorry, _what_."

* * *

The plan was for Maiph, Ruta, Swirn, and Blumfump to keep the guards busy, while Isond and Plaxum stayed in Blue's mouth, the latter armed with a slingshot and what was essentially underwater puffball mushrooms, and the former with a sort of lasso fashioned from a very sticky plant.

It took all of seven minutes for them to have Luxia after getting to the city. "Okay that was…way too easy," Jordan said, leaning back a bit in the chair. Blue had brought up a camera showing the entryway—she kept some water in there so the Plegians could breathe.

Luxia blinked a few times, before looking up, confusion written all over her face. _"Wh-What's going on here? Isond? Where are we?"_

 _"You don't know either?"_ Isond looked some weird mix between disbelieving and relieved, while Plaxum was frowning in a way that was somewhere between disbelieving and suspicious. Jordan himself was leaning more toward relieved himself. Contributing to a regicide wasn't really something he'd been looking forward to. _"Luxia, what's the last thing you can remember?"_

 _"The last…"_ Her brow furrowed for a second, before she paled. _"That—that thing that crashed through the ice. I-In the gardens!"_

 _"The thing in the gardens,"_ Isond muttered, before his eyes widened. _"Wait, that sounds familiar! I think we both went to look at it and then…and then…"_ He trailed off, fins drooping, at the same time as Blue mentally tensing.

 _"What thing?"_ Plaxum asked, sounding doubtful. _"How do we know that's not a lie?"_

"Uh—I think _that_ proves it," Jordan pointed out, with Blue helpfully opening her mouth for them to see too. There was what looked like a garden in the city below, and either it was just him, or it was _moving_.

More precisely, the centerpiece of the garden was uncoiling itself from the rocks, showing itself to be something less like a plant and more like a giant…snake-worm thing, which screeched loudly at facing Blue, showcasing rows of needle-like teeth.

"A mind-controlling sea monster. Great," Jordan muttered, thinking quickly. True, it being the thing controlling everyone was a guess, but with everything else he knew about this, it honestly wouldn't surprise him if it was true. "You guys might want to get somewhere safer—and get everyone else out of there! I'll keep it distracted!"

At least, that was the plan. Jordan really did not expect that thing to move _nearly_ as fast as it did—it twisted out of the way of all three shots Blue fired off at it. _How am I supposed to hit it if it keeps moving like that?!_

Blue suggested freezing it, but that only worked for maybe ten seconds before it used its own tail as a hammer to free its head before coming at them again. "Okay now what?" he asked, yanking on the control sticks to keep Blue from getting tackled by it.

They definitely had to keep the thing away from the city. Jordan had an ugly suspicion on _why_ it was hanging around and controlling the people here, and Blue was agreeing with it, but they needed some way to make sure it couldn't hurt anyone. _Maybe if we could trap it,_ Jordan thought, looking around. Blue saw the cavern first, using her tail-laser to blast the entrance open wide enough for her to get in.

Through the crevice was an open cavern, with enough gaps in the top for teal-hued light to filter down—it had been nighttime when they'd crashed, _that_ was why it had been so dark—and when Blue turned, the sea-monster wasn't there. _It followed us, right?_

Jordan got his answer three seconds later when it slammed into the Lion from above, wrapping around her and roaring right in front of her face, which gave him a way-too-clear view of its teeth—a few of which seemed to have splotches of something mercury-silver stained on them that he _really hoped wasn't blood_ —

Blue fired, a fresh wave of anger going into it, and while the thing shut its mouth right before the shot went out it was still sent reeling. Whatever this thing was, it was controlling everyone around just so it could get free meals.

Whatever it was, _it had to go_ , and Jordan agreed wholeheartedly.

But how? The thing moved too fast to shoot at, and freezing it didn't work. Hitting it head-on probably wouldn't do any good either…but the thing that just showed up on a side-screen might work.

Jordan wasn't sure what exactly Blue was suggesting, but he definitely heard whatever it was activating as soon as he'd hit the screen. The Lion shifted slightly, and Jordan could see the tip of whatever it was materialize with a blue flicker—and then he _heard_ it.

To him, it was just a faint whining sound, but to the sea monster, it was obviously something a lot louder, with how it started trying to get as far away from Blue as possible—at least until it slammed into the back wall of the cavern hard enough to dislodge more than a few rocks from the ceiling. _Oh. Well that'd work!_

A few laser shots (with one landing on the sea-monster's face again for good measure thanks to it being pinned) and a collapsed cavern later, Jordan looked hard at what was left of the area after the dust had settled. His instructors always told him to not go overkill in shooting things, but in this case, it was warranted, and Blue agreed.

"I don't see anything moving," he muttered, looking around. "Did we do it?" A pause, before an affirmation, eliciting a sigh from him. Then she pulled his attention toward the screen that had stayed up above one of the side-consoles.

Jordan couldn't read any of it since it was all displaying in Altean, but Blue provided the basic idea for what it was saying. The thing currently on her back had just been used as a sonic-cannon, but it could also be a sonar, radar, scanner, or even as an amplifier for signals. "So—we can use it to find the others?"

The response to that was essentially _slow down_ , followed by a reminder. "Oh, right," he muttered sheepishly, with Blue turning to start back toward the city after putting her radio-gun (Jordan couldn't think of a better way to describe it) away.

They went toward the largest gathering of people, who all moved to make room for Blue. Isond was at the front of the crowd, with Luxia and the others. "We heard the noise from here," Isond said, wincing a bit. "Is it dead?"

"Well, it's under a bunch of rocks now, so I'd think so," Jordan replied. There was a visible response of relief from most of the aliens present at that. He hesitated, biting his lip before asking, "So uh—is anyone…missing?"

"Some of the guard aren't accounted for, and we can't find any of the garden's attendants," Luxia replied, sounding weary. "We're _not_ going to find them, are we."

"I…no," he muttered. "What _was_ that thing, anyways?"

"A baku." Isond shuddered slightly. "I thought they would've been eradicated—they're not picky eaters, and they can survive on land as well as in water, so I'd assume the empire's had its share of having a few set sights on some colonies of theirs."

Blue growled—this was her first time having fought one, but she'd heard about them from the others. _You mean the other Lions?_ And if _that_ didn't bring something else pressing to mind, Jordan wasn't sure what would.

"H-Hold on a second. You guys wouldn't happen to have any sort of…long-range communicators, would you? I'm—we don't know where the others are."

"I'm afraid not." Luxia frowned. "We haven't had anything like that for a very long time. As far as we can tell, Zarkon doesn't know we still exist, and we'd rather keep it that way."

"…oh. I mean, I get that, but—" Jordan cut himself off. Talking wasn't going to get him anywhere here. They didn't have anything, end of story. Which meant they were probably going to have to pick a direction and fly in it, and hope they didn't run into anything ugly.

That got a purr; it was _one_ option. The other was that they could start in the direction of the next galaxy over, where a long-range scan reported both the Black and Red Lions as being in. _Shiro and Eva._

" _But_ you have to go find your team?" Isond guessed, smiling.

"I—yeah, I kinda have to go now, so uh—"

"Ah, don't sweat it." The Nalquodian clapped him on the shoulder, hard enough to make Jordan stumble a bit but not enough to hurt. "You and your team got saddled with one hell of a mess, so getting back together is important."

"He's right." Luxia swam forward a bit. "We've all lived in hiding for so long, hearing that there might finally be some hope of being able to reach out again is heartening. You will have Plegia's full support, should you ever need our assistance."

"And Nalquod's, even though we're all living here until further notice." Isond grinned briefly. "I don't suppose you could fit getting us all home eventually into your schedule?"

"I'll—I'll have to go over that with the others first," Jordan replied, managing a smile before stepping back toward Blue. Blue herself was set on that idea, purring audibly when he reached the cockpit. "Yeah, I guess that wasn't so bad," he said, turning her to start toward the surface.

Blasting through the ice was no problem, and it was just _open space_ around Plegia in all directions, a few rings encircling the planet aside. Blue had a fairly solid ETA to where Shiro and Eva were to be about forty minutes, if she didn't slow down and nothing tried bothering them.

Ten minutes later, she started seeming smug about something, and Jordan took his focus away from the space ahead for a bit, asking about it—she didn't give a direct response, of course, instead giving a vague impression of steering.

 _What about the steering?_ He had both handles forward, like everyone else did…wait.

"Hold on. You mean— _I'm_ flying?"

The smugness turned into a happy affirmation. To be more specific, he'd _been_ flying since they'd left Plegia.

* * *

He'd already known that the castleship was big, but seeing it near the pits really put it into perspective. Or what was left of the pits, anyways. Most of them looked more worse for the wear.

The sky was overcast in all directions, a sticky wetness to the air implying that it had been raining on and off. Though that the grass _had_ to be soaked didn't stop Allura from running over to where Green and Yellow touched down, despite the fact that she had her dress on. "You're both alright," she said, looking relieved.

"And you are too," Stan pointed out. "What the hell even happened back there?"

"If you're referring to the wormhole, I'm not entirely sure—but Zarkon's witch had to have something to do with it."

"When you say _witch_ , you don't mean like the magic-type, do you?"

Allura didn't reply, and that coupled with Green going tense at the mention had Koji assuming _yes_. He forced a cough after a bit, saying "What about that thing the Red Lion did? With the…was that a railgun or a plasma cannon?" He lowered his voice at the last part, looking at Stan, who just shrugged.

"It—it's something between those, actually," Allura said, blinking a few times in surprise.

"Okay, so what's the deal with it?" Stan asked. "One second it was there, and the next it was gone."

"I'm afraid I don't know much," was the given (and admittedly expected) response. "The most that the original paladins were able to learn was that it had something to do with the aspects of the Lions themselves." Allura's tone took a turn for the stilted at the end, and Green was being silent on the matter. "It works in a way similar to your bayards."

In the distance, Koji saw a small group of Scrubs stumble to a halt at noticing them, staring with obviously-startled looks, and he made himself look away. "Of all the places you could've ended up, though," he said, trying to smile.

"Of all the places," Allura agreed, mirroring the expression. "Coran and I had just finished moving some of the mechanical equipment from your housing area here into the castle."

"You—oh." Koji blinked a few times, surprised. He and Stan had been planning on asking if they could bring their things from here with them when they left.

Some of the aforementioned tools not being there aside, the pit was otherwise exactly as they'd left it, if noticeably dustier. Stan had wordlessly pointed out the half-collapsed housing tower, which had Koji wondering if anything of Rick's or Don's would even be salvageable.

Eva's room (compared to what they had on the castleship, it really couldn't even be called that) had been cleared out already, as had Jordan's, but it looked like his own room and Stan's hadn't been touched—aside from the dressers, which were emptied already.

Another once-over of everything confirmed that yes, he really had forgotten to take his spare glasses with him when they'd first left Earth. _I guess I'll just have to make these ones last,_ he thought, starting to gather some of the smaller objects scattered around the room into a box.

The nice thing about the lingering clouds meant that it wasn't as hot as it could've been. It also meant that he could keep his focus on the sky instead of on the ground, because if he looked at the ground there was still the odd chance of him noticing that they were being stared at on the way to the castle.

"They definitely remember us," Stan said once away from the buildings. The contents of the box he was carrying was basically the same variety of what Koji had packed away first, which probably explained how they'd ended up heading out at the same time.

"Honestly, I'm kind of hoping no one says anything," Koji replied at the same tone. Whether it was just because of the fact that the reason that the souk was halfway burned out and obviously still being put back together was something linked to them now, or that he and Stan were probably the only part of a team that had been on Alwas to _come back_ , he felt guilty for it.

Stan seemed to sense what he was thinking, and stopped to elbow him not-quite-gently. "You really think there's any way _anyone_ could've known that we'd get dragged into some science-fiction fairy tale?"

"No," Koji replied, almost laughing at how Stan had described it. It honestly wasn't that far from the truth, and that earned a flash of mock offense from the Green Lion.

 _Well, you and the other four are making me have to rethink how the world works every other day,_ he remarked silently to her. Her response was something impishly prideful and it didn't translate into words.

They passed Coran when they were almost to the castleship, who both greeted them enthusiastically and informed that he'd put most of the mechanical tools in the shuttle hangar for them, along with a few other assorted things that had been in the pit's hangar.

Koji decided, upon getting to his room in the ship, that it'd be easier to just leave the box on the desk in there for now, and figure out where to put things later. There would be one more trip back for the rest of the things in the pit that were his, and then maybe one or two more for other things still there that they could use.

On the way back toward the main lift, Stan stopped again, looking into the hangar while they were passing it. Koji frowned at him. "Stan?" He didn't reply, instead just pointing at the _Arrow_ , which was also just as they'd left it. Then Koji noticed it too.

For a minute, neither of them said a word, until Stan muttered "The purple needs to go."

* * *

Eva woke with a jolt, stumbling to her feet and looking around, heart pounding. Then she noticed Red's presence receding, and remembered what led up to her falling asleep this time. She murmured a thanks, before looking at the sky, now a dark shade of reddish-purple flecked with silvery-white.

It didn't look like this planet had a moon, or maybe it was just a new-moon. Either way, if this wasn't the best time to infiltrate a Galra base, Eva didn't know what was.

 _Now how am I going to get in there?_ Just walking in through the front door wouldn't be a good idea. Red fired off some sarcasm at that, earning a muttered "No duh Sherlock," from her. "D'you think they'd have…I don't know, a maintenance entrance somewhere?"

Probably not—but there might be a ventilation duct somewhere she could use, and there was one side of the building not blocked by a wall. And just her luck, there was a vent duct there. With a conveniently-shaped rock formation next to it, to boot.

Getting the cover of the duct itself off took a few minutes of trying to use her bayard as a crowbar. The spiked end of the bow was just fine enough to get between it and the wall of the building, and it eventually popped off. Of course, it couldn't be all good luck for her: the vent was choked with dust, and it was narrow. Sure, she could fit, but it was a _tight_ fit.

At least the dust could be ignored by means of a sealed helmet.

The first room of note that had a grate over it was what looked like a supply closet, though all it had in it were cleaning supplies. _I guess even these places need janitors._

The second grate was above a lounge room. Which had two actual-Galrans in it. "I'm telling you, this quadrant is the pits," one of them was saying. "Nothing ever happens out here!"

"You said it," the other one agreed. "Captain Lirax doesn't help with it either." _Lirax?_ That name sounded familiar—and Eva hadn't realized she'd made a sound until she saw both of them tense, and she quickly moved back as quietly as she could manage.

"You hear something?" one of them asked.

"Thought I did…probably just that fan malfunctioning again."

"Yeah…" Footsteps, and then a door activating.

Eva sighed heavily, whispering "That was close," to herself before moving forward again. The next duct, which wasn't seen for the next three minutes, she had to suppress a flinch when she saw the bright-orange alien that seemed to be sleeping. She didn't recognize the next one either, or the one after that.

The next one she _did_ recognize—not that she was happy to see Grooor again. He didn't notice her, and she wanted it to stay that way, so she kept quiet. After him was a Scrub, then another alien she didn't recognize, and then…he was sitting in the back of the room and the lighting really wasn't the best, but she recognized him in moments.

He tensed when she knocked a fist against the duct cover a few times quietly, looking up while blinking a few times tiredly— _oh hey he had green eyes_ —before squinting up at her. "Hey Rick," she greeted quietly, feeling herself smile more than anything.

His response was for his expression to cycle through confusion, concern, disbelief, before just going slack-jawed for a few moments. "Little Mouse, you never cease to amaze," he breathed, before standing up. "Glad as I am to see you in one piece, how did you even get here?"

"It's a long story," Eva replied, moving so that her arms were crossed in front of her so she could rest her head a bit.

"Well, I'm definitely not going anywhere, so I think we have time." The remark was dry, with no snideness intended, though it still had her biting her lip.

"Okay, so it started when Shiro crashed on Alwas—or, well, a really long time before that, actually," she stuttered a little in correcting herself at Red's behest. "The reason they hit Alwas so hard was because they were trying to find something that was hidden there." Rick didn't say anything, just quirking one brow a little, so she went on with "It…it was a weapon. A ship."

"I take it you and the boys found that ship first."

Eva nodded, before smiling. "Would you believe me if I told you it was a giant metal lion?"

Rick stared at her for a few seconds, before saying "To be honest, that reminds me of something I saw in an old book back on Alwas. It mentioned some sort of fire-guardian. Must've taken a shine to you." He paused, visibly frowning. "Hold on. If you're here, where are the others?"

"They're…well, Shiro's not _too_ far from here, but I—I don't know about everyone else. We got split up after…um…" After they all did something nigh-on suicidal? More specifically for her and Red?

"Things got crazy," she said with a sigh.

"Don't sweat it Molly, life's just like that sometimes."

 _Oh. Right. That._

"Actually, Rick? There's…there's something else I should probably tell you." A few seconds passed, and she tried taking another deep breath. _C'mon Eva, you did this once already, it really shouldn't be that hard—!_

"How about you start from the beginning?" Rick suggested. Red agreed with the idea. So that was what she did. It took the better part of maybe five minutes, with a few intervals of having to stay quiet for a bit when a guard patrol passed by, but there otherwise weren't any interruptions.

"Eva, huh?" Rick sounded thoughtful, before saying "You know, Don told me he had a kid while you and Jordan were out, before everything went south on us."

Static. "He did?"

"He didn't say much beyond that." She heard a sigh. "Before you ask, no, he's not here. We got split up pretty early-on." Had it not been for the gauntlets, her nails would've been digging into her palms. _I think I saw that coming,_ she thought.

"Honestly, you telling me your end of it fills a few blanks," Rick went on. "That was really brave of you to come out to the others like that. And three of 'em, you barely even knew then."

"It wasn't that bad," Eva muttered, glancing sideways.

"And that _Voltron_ thing. I heard some of the guards talking about it—sounds like you're all raising hell out there." And now her whole face felt warm. Great.

She heard Rick chuckle a bit, before saying "You said something about Shirogane getting roughed up earlier? There's a storeroom with medical supplies further down the hall—they might treat us all like trash, but they don't like it when we get too roughed-up."

"Okay." Eva paused, vision blurring for a few seconds, before saying "And Rick? I—we'll come back here for you," while pretending that her voice hadn't cracked. "I promise."

"Don't worry about me Little Mouse," he said, smiling and giving her a thumbs-up. "You take care of yourself first."

* * *

Shiro wasn't sure how much time had passed before Eva finally came back with a medical kit obviously taken from the base in hand, just that it was at least two hours after the sun had set. The wound in his side had flared a few minutes ago, the heat emanating from it becoming painful enough to have his vision blurring, but it had settled once Black noticed and stepped in. Her response was something concerned to the point of frustration, vaguely referencing the castle. _I'll be fine,_ he thought, opening the kit and identifying the antibiotic.

"Do you need any help?" Eva asked uncertainly.

"I've got it," he replied, unscrewing the cap and pouring some onto the wound. In retrospect, that hadn't been the best idea—especially given how much it _burned_. "Stings a bit," he admitted at seeing the younger girl's expression.

"A bit," she repeated.

"Alright, maybe a lot." Shiro took a deep breath, ignoring the _probably-a-laugh_ feeling coming from Black right now, before asking "Were you able to talk to your friend?"

Eva froze for a second, before nodding. "Yeah, I was." She took a shaky breath before saying, "We've gotta get him out of there."

"And we will. But not until we've regrouped with the others."

She kept a level gaze with him for a few seconds before sitting down by the fire, hugging her knees to her chest. "Did you—you didn't hear anything from anyone, have you?"

Shiro turned to look up at Black, who went pensive for a few seconds. Then the pensiveness turned into welcome surprise, right as both their helmets' comms crackled. _"—iro, Eva, can you—?"_

"Jordan?" Eva exclaimed quietly, jumping to her feet again. "Jordan, where are you?"

The cadet laughed over the comm, still broken up by static, but otherwise legible. _"Heading toward—now,"_ was the response, getting clearer as he went. _"Blue says—should be there in five minutes."_

Five minutes. _The Blue Lion must've ended up not too far from us, then,_ Shiro thought. The odds of that were _small_ , with how large the universe was, so they lucked out there. "Actually—Jordan, have the Blue Lion stop by the nearest planet to this one. We'll meet up with you there."

 _"Sure…wait, why?"_

"There's a Galra base on this planet, and I'm not sure how well-armed it is." Shiro looked sideways at Eva as he spoke, and she just shrugged a little, looking slightly sheepish. "I don't suppose you've heard from the others?"

Jordan sighed a bit. _"Not yet. Uh, but Blue's got a—well."_ He paused. _"We have something that might be able to help with that. How hard did you guys crash?"_

"What happened to you?" Eva asked in turn.

 _"Blue went right through some ice into an ocean."_

"Then you got off easier than we did." Definitely easier—Black's mental eye-roll gave the impression that out of all five of them, the Blue Lion was the best at maneuvering in the water.

While the two kids were conversing, Shiro was putting a gauze patch over his wound. Seconds after it was in place, Black purred. She was mobile again, at least, though her weapons weren't back online yet. "Hopefully we won't need them," Shiro muttered, wincing while standing up. "Eva, can the Red Lion fly?"

"Huh?" She looked up at her Lion, before saying "Yeah, we can fly. We're…going now, huh."

"We can't risk staying here," Shiro said gently. "To be honest, it's a miracle that they haven't noticed us yet." It really was. Actually, it was almost _strange_ that they hadn't been noticed yet.

"But we'll come back for Rick, right?"

"Once we're all together again," he reassured.

* * *

Jordan had known he was getting close to them before they were in communication range, by means of some of the mental white-noise coming back. With it had come a weird ache in his side that Blue had side-eyed in a concerned way, though she wouldn't clarify on what it was, aside from it not being from him.

The small brown planet he and Blue had stopped by had a moon and two rings, was uninhabited, and called Epona-5. And Jordan had been the one to pilot her there all the way from Plegia—he hadn't freaked out or anything this time, either. _And they all kept saying I couldn't do it!_

Blue purred, giving a prideful impression, before drawing his attention to the space facing away from the nearest sun. He saw the Red Lion first, being the one speck of color against the darkness of space, and the console beeped before two screens appeared. _"Am I glad to see you,"_ Eva said, slumping in the seat a little.

"You're telling me," Jordan replied, smiling. "So that thing I was telling you guys about? Blue's got a secret weapon."

 _"Really?"_ Shiro looked curious. _"What does it do?"_

"Er, well," he stuttered a little. "It's actually kind of a multipurpose thing, but she thinks we might be able to get in touch with the others with it. I mean—it can amplify radio waves."

 _"So it can boost a signal."_

"Yeah."

Shiro nodded. _"It's worth a shot. Give it a go."_

Blue brought up the device readily, earning a surprised _"Oh wow,"_ from Eva. Jordan eyed the screen, thought _Hope this works_ , and then tapped it. He heard the device charge up before doing its thing, and a few minutes dragged by.

 _"Did it work?"_ Eva asked.

Jordan glanced at the ceiling, feeling a bit anticlimactic, and Blue reported that their location was definitely received by the other two Lions; the castle wasn't included to be safe, in case of there being a Galra ship or base between them. "Yeah, it did. We're gonna have to wait for them to come to us, though."

 _"Well, a little more waiting isn't going to hurt any of us,"_ Shiro said, wincing a bit while putting a hand to his side—which either Jordan was just seeing things, or there was a sizable bandage over it.

"You got hurt back there," he realized.

 _"It's not as bad as it looks."_

 _"Shiro, it was_ glowing _,"_ Eva exclaimed. _"I don't think that's supposed to happen!"_

No, it was _not_ supposed to happen, and the level of worry Blue had now was putting Jordan on-edge. _C'mon guys, wherever you are, can you hurry it up?_

* * *

It had taken the better part of two vargas, but the pit that the paladins had used during their tenure as participants in the Great Race of Ōban was, for the most part, cleared out now.

Stan and Koji had both come back looking perturbed by something, and had been moving with a driven purpose when it came to collecting the rest of their things, though when Coran had asked Koji, he'd just mumbled something about paint and the racing ship.

All that was really left now was clearing out the specified storerooms on the castle—the princess had already started on that, with assistance from a few of the locals. Coran himself would be going to assist them, after one last thing.

The building's elevator stuttered on the way up, but it reached the third floor, and the sight that greeted the adviser was that of a disaster area. What had once been the fourth level of the building had collapsed into the third, leaving the floor strewn with debris. He'd still have to try to reach the last floor, in case there was anything left up there, but first things were first.

There was an intact closet with some fairly-colorful clothing articles against the wall, and a _mostly_ -intact desk lying in the center of the room, though the same couldn't be said for a device that looked like it had been built into the aforementioned furniture, with how frayed wires were sticking out.

The same also could not be said for the drawer, which had been thrown out of its place entirely, leaving its sole content to be half-crushed under a plank of wood. Though he knew it wasn't his place to pry into the affairs of whoever it belonged to, the pale edge of a single photograph was both hard to miss and a source of curiosity in itself.

It was a simple picture of three humans, but Coran recognized one of them as Eva after a few ticks—much younger and barring both the red dye and tattoos, of course, but still her. Which meant that the other two must be…

He sighed quietly, before tucking the photograph into one of his pockets. He still wasn't entirely sure why she'd hidden her identity from the others at first, even during the race, especially given that her father was involved, but he had a few vague ideas.

Hopefully the photograph that her father seemed to have kept would give her some peace of mind.

* * *

It wouldn't do anyone much good if he was seen now, so watching from afar was really the only thing he could do. In all honesty, he shouldn't even be away from Ōban at this point—but fate had a tendency to be tempting like this. "Well, she hasn't changed much," Satis mused, watching the Altean princess directing a small band of Scrubs moving various scraps of metal. Something of a mental eye-roll came from the Yellow Lion, while the Green gave a reminder of a ten-thousand-year stasis. "That's true, that's true."

He sighed. It was a real shame Molly wasn't here. It would have been nice to be able to talk to the girl one more time before…well.

Satis had been correct in the nagging suspicion he'd had of having to deal with some awkward questions from the other finalists, regarding the matter of there being only six when there should have been nine, but the race was progressing smoothly.

It wasn't shaping up to be much of a _competition_ , in the end, but he supposed that was just how the cards of life were dealt sometimes.

He likely wouldn't be around to see how this all ended, but that fell along the same lines.

* * *

"I think that's everything," Allura said, turning to look at Stan and Koji. The sun was beginning to set, shading everything orange, and the clouds had finally cleared. With it, the castle was a few storerooms' worth of items emptier, though the contents of one had simply been replaced.

"It feels really weird being here again," Stan muttered, looking toward the small crowd that had gathered near where the two Lions were. Koji nodded slightly.

Neither Lion had raised their shields, but they may as well have with the distance. _Then again, they may as well be a folktale come to life._

Then both of them mentally perked up, the Green Lion reporting a set of coordinates almost immediately. At the same time, there was a blurted "They heard from Jordan! A-And Shiro and Eva are with him!" from Koji.

Relief swept over Allura like a wave at that. "We'll wormhole there as soon as Coran's back," she said, looking around. She couldn't see the adviser anywhere, but she knew that he was in the general vicinity of the building.

"You're leaving?" Allura hadn't realized Mariposa had come up to them. The Scrub didn't look disappointed, however—if anything it was a searching look.

"We are, yes," she said. "Is something the matter?"

"Not really." Her grip on the staff tightened before she added "My cousin was one of the pilots who went missing that night. And it wasn't just pilots who disappeared either. A few of the townsfolk did too. If you find them out there…"

Allura smiled. "Don't worry Mariposa. They're out there somewhere. When we find them, we'll make sure they get home safe and sound."

She saw Stan and Koji exchange a glance to the side, though neither of them said anything. Coran returned a few doboshes afterwards, holding an armful of clothing. "This is all I could get out of the third and fourth floors," he said. "The furniture's unsalvageable, unfortunately."

"That's alright," Allura said, while Stan moved to take some of the articles. "Are we set to leave?"

"That we are, princess!"

The departure from Alwas wasn't nearly as monumental as that from Arus, once the Green and Yellow Lions had returned to their hangars. "So where did our three errant paladins end up, anyways?" Coran asked.

The Yellow Lion replied with an image of a smaller solar system, in a quieter corner of the Galra Empire, distinguished only by the name of its star, Epona. The sight of the star was the first thing to greet them on the other side of the wormhole, and directly before them were the other three Lions. A series of screens was prompt to appear on the main display.

 _"Took you guys long enough!"_ Eva exclaimed, though there was a tinge of relief under the irritation in both her voice and expression.

"Apologies for the wait," Coran replied, nonplussed. "That wormhole scrambled the castle's navigation systems. That had to get a reboot before we could go anywhere."

 _"What matters is that we're all together again,"_ Shiro said tiredly.

Allura frowned, coinciding with the Black Lion making her unease known. "Shiro, you look pale. Are you alright?"

 _"It's nothing."_

 _"Says the guy with the glowing gashes!"_ Jordan remarked sarcastically.

"She injured you back there." Allura felt cold—she'd _seen_ what an untreated druid wound could do before, before all of this. "Shiro, you have to get into a pod. _Now_."

* * *

Coran had gone right to making _sure_ Shiro made it to the infirmary, with the rest of them meeting up on the bridge. "You two alright?" was the first thing Stan asked.

"I'm still a bit wet, but yeah," Jordan replied. "Me and Blue crashed on Plegia—it's an ocean planet."

"That sounds familiar," Allura mused. "I think my father went there once. How are things there?"

"Well, uh, they're kind of in hiding, and there was some sort of brainwashing sea-monster there, but we took care of it."

"A…a _what_?" Koji sounded as baffled as he looked.

"Long story. What about you guys?"

The mechanics looked at each other, before Koji said, "Elpis."

Eva waited a few seconds to make sure she hadn't misheard him, muttering a "What?" when she realized she hadn't.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either." Stan shook his head a little. "We both got some stuff while we were there, too."

Jordan stared at them, before saying "Okay, that settles it, you guys are awesome."

"It's really nothing," Koji tried deflecting. "I mean—it's things we might need out here."

"More supplies are always welcome," Allura said. "Which we should have a few phoebs' worth of now."

"Wait, where did you and Coran end up?" Eva asked.

"Guess," Stan said, trying to hide a grin. "Here's a hint: we got some of _our_ stuff now too."

She thought about it for a second, though Red beat her to the realization, the baffled sense of irony making the answer obvious. "Wait, _Alwas_?"

"Alwas," Allura confirmed, though her smile faltered slightly. "They weren't exactly welcoming at first, but we have a few storerooms' worth of basic supplies now."

"What about you and Shiro?" Jordan looked over at her now. "You haven't really said anything about where you ended up yet, aside from the Galra base."

"About that." Eva swallowed apprehensively, clenching her fists. "We have to go back. They have prisoners there."

The princess slipped right into serious-mode at that. "How many?"

"I don't know, b-but—some of them are from the race." That got the other three's attentions.

"So next up is a rescue mission," Stan said. "We'll just have to wait for Shiro. How long should that take?"

"I don't know," Allura replied, ears lowering slightly. "Druid injuries…they become infected quickly, and heal slowly. It could take anywhere between three quintants to three movements."

"We can't wait that long!" Eva burst, thoughts going from single-track to everywhere at once. "Rick's there too!"

"Are you sure?" Koji sounded tense.

"I'm sure. I-I had to sneak in there to get some medical stuff for Shiro, a-and I talked to him a bit."

"Count me in," Jordan said automatically. "It wasn't that big of a place, was it?"

Eva stammered slightly. "Well, it was just the one building—"

"So just the four of us should be able to handle it! Right?" He turned to look at the others.

Koji was biting his lip, and Stan looked about as conflicted as Allura, though the latter turned to pull up a few screens. "It's a smaller base, yes," she said. "The only thing I can think of that would require Voltron would be if a battlecruiser showed up."

"I think we might be able to handle one of those now," Eva said, remembering one detail of the bad-idea fight she'd gotten into.

Allura looked at her for a few long seconds, before sighing. "I can see you're all set on this. Very well. I'll set a course for Epona-6. Be ready to launch as soon as we get there."

* * *

First attempt at writing Pidge, ho!

But yeah, this part had me seriously wanting to smash my head into a wall with how much it was fighting me. I'm aware that the canonical events of this chapter are on the anticlimactic side of the scale, but I really wasn't sure how to flesh it out more aside from the worldbuilding I set up here.

Also, timeline. _What Is Timeline_. No joke, neither series has a definitive one, so that's a thing I'm going to have to attempt to hammer out at some point.

OSR in particular is Confusing, though I took an opportunity to put a bit of a correlation in this chapter.


	16. Silence

_Shit goes down in this one_.

* * *

 **Arc I: Race's End**

 **Silence**

 _"We'll provide support from orbit,"_ Allura said over the comm. _"And let you know if anything changes."_

 _"Thanks for that,"_ Stan replied, while Jordan focused on taking a few deep breaths. He thought Eva had seemed a bit distracted earlier, but now he knew why. _Rick's down there._

 _"So we know what to do, right?"_ Eva asked.

"Yeah," Jordan replied. They'd spent almost an hour coming up with the plan, and while it was on the simpler end of the scale, he had a good feeling about it.

First, they'd all take out any fighters the base might have. Then, they'd all go on foot into the base—he and Koji would handle one half of the building, while Eva and Stan would look through the other, with all four of them freeing anyone and everyone on the way. After that, it'd just be a matter of getting everyone to the castleship.

She'd also mentioned having seen two actual-Galra guards there, with a third named Lirax supposedly in charge of the place. Which meant looking before shooting.

Jordan knew that…well, that it was _unavoidable_ whenever it came to Lions-against-battlecruiser, but he wasn't too keen on the idea of actually taking anyone out himself. _I'll just…try to knock 'em out if I see 'em. Yeah, that'll work._

Unlike the time on the Balmera, there was no fanfare to the four Lions launching, aside from a small reassuring purr from Blue. The sun was already up, so they had a clear view of the base itself—and they had a clear view of _them_ in return, if how fast a swarm of fighters swarmed out of an opening in the cliff face below was anything to go on.

"Okay, so the building goes underground too," Jordan noted.

 _"There has to be a map in the system,"_ Koji said. _"I should be able to get in after a few minutes."_ Rover was in the Green Lion with him—they didn't have Shiro to get directly into any computers, so the drone was the next best bet.

The Red Lion moved first, a red-hued beam sweeping across in an arc and melting one-fourth of the fighter swarm in seconds. Jordan's surprise at the speed of it didn't keep him from having Blue freeze another portion, while the other two took care of the rest.

Then again, Rick was at stake here.

 _"Was that it?"_ Eva asked after a few minutes, suspicion tinging her voice, as the last of the smaller ships had been sent plunging toward the bottom of the canyon.

"I think so," Jordan replied, looking at a side-screen—Blue running a scan wasn't showing anything else. "Talk about bad security."

 _"I don't like this,"_ Stan muttered. _"You sure they didn't know you and Shiro were here?"_

 _"I'm sure,"_ Eva replied, the Red Lion moving forward to blast down part of the wall surrounding the base, otherwise forming a nice landing area for the four Lions by the edge of the cliff.

There was no one and nothing on the outside of the base, and the front door couldn't hold up against the explosive charges Coran had been very clear in explaining to Jordan in terms of how they worked. "That tower on the right side looks like it might have a control room," Stan pointed out.

"Then we'll take that side," Jordan said. "There's probably gonna be a lot of robots in here." _And then some._ And speaking of robots, there was ten of them right behind the door, which all immediately started shooting, which meant three of them were ducking behind the wall again while Jordan shot back at them with his bayard.

They managed to bring the number down to four; the leftover sentries were steadily making their way toward them, once they'd found a gap in his shooting. Then he heard a loud _bang_ , followed by the sentries falling back with holes burnt into them. A sideways look confirmed that yes, it was Stan's bayard that did that. _A shotgun? Huh._

 _Nice._

* * *

They decided to split up after that, with Jordan taking the lead. Koji had no complaints about that, looking back over his shoulder every thirty seconds or so. Given the alarm droning on, they definitely weren't here unnoticed.

There was a total of two patrols they ran into on the way, both consisting of three sentries, but they went down fast.

Something felt weird about that, but it could also just be that most of the sentries had been in the fighters. This wasn't a very large base, either—and it was the only Galran establishment on the whole planet.

Green was assuring that it would go fine. And then they reached the control room, which had two Galrans in it, who both froze and turned when they heard the door.

 _So much for fine._

Jordan moved first—the alien might not have registered it until it was about to happen, with how fast he'd moved in and punched him in the face. The other moved then, rushing at him, though he stopped when he saw the blue bayard pointed at him, slowly putting his hands up with a nervous smile.

It was over faster than Koji expected it to be, and it didn't go down like…well, like part of him was thinking it would, which _he was glad for_.

"We got the control room taken care of," Jordan reported, glancing at the two now-tied-up (the next room over happened to be a storeroom with some rope in it) Galrans before adding "It wasn't that hard, either."

 _"Well, that's one good thing,"_ Stan said. _"This side of the building's like a maze."_

"Just give me a minute or two," Koji muttered, attaching a cable between his tablet and Rover. "Have you found him yet?"

 _"Not yet, no. We just—"_ There was a pause, with blaster fire being heard. _"We just found some more sentries, though."_

"Do you guys need backup?" Jordan asked.

A minute dragged by, before _"We got it. There's…really not as many of these things around as I thought there would be, though."_

 _"It could be that you took out most of them with the fighters,"_ Allura suggested. _"But that is strange. A prison base wouldn't usually be so lightly-guarded."_

"How're things looking from up there?" Jordan asked.

 _"The alarm you're hearing now is only for the base, and you got there before anyone could send out a distress signal, so it should be all clear."_

 _"Great, that just makes it easier for us,"_ Eva said. _"C'mon!"_

 _"H-Hey, Eva! Wait up!"_

Jordan let out an exasperated sigh, rolling his eyes a bit, running a hand down his face while looking upwards as if asking _Why?_

Koji bit down a smile—it was a little piece of normalcy in the midst of all of this.

He still handled the tech.

Jordan was still their gunner.

Stan was trying to be the voice of reason.

And Eva keeps running off and doing whatever she wanted to.

The translation program missed a few symbols, but an otherwise-still-legible map came up on the screen. "It looks like there's three floors to the building, not counting the hangar," he reported. "I'm sending the map to you now."

* * *

There was a stark difference between seeing the inside of the base and seeing it from ventilation grates.

For one, when they did find the cells, they were seen by some of the prisoners. Some of whom obviously recognized them, with all the gasps and whispers and staring.

"How are these things even supposed to open?" Stan muttered, glaring at one of the doors.

"There's a code," the alien inside whispered. Eva didn't recognize her, and was pretty sure she wasn't from Alwas. "I don't know what it is, though."

"Of course…" Stan paused, glare being directed to the corresponding keypad to the door, and his bayard flickered into form. "Gonna try something. You might want to stand back."

The alien did as such, and one shot later, the keypad on the door was _very_ broken, and the door slowly slid open.

 _If you can't work with it, break it._ A motto she lived by, so she approved of the action.

The alien inside came out hesitantly, wariness all over her features. She was humanoid, aside from having four pupilless blue eyes and gold-colored scales, long rabbit-like ears, a crest of white feathers on top of her head, and six-fingered clawed hands.

"Thank you," she said finally, voice still quiet. "I was beginning to give up hope that we'd ever be free from here."

"It's nothing." Eva said, not exactly paying attention. "There's someone else like us here. Do you know where he is?"

The alien tilted her head to one side slightly, before replying "There is, yes. He's not on this floor, though I think—"

Eva didn't wait to hear the rest, instead turning on her heel to bolt toward the stairs, though she remained near enough for long enough to hear a startled curse come from Stan. _Whoops._

She was halfway down the wide hallway that made up the first floor down when she heard a low "Just what is going on up there?" The volume by itself indicated that it was someone asking their neighbor, but it was the fact that she knew the voice that had her skidding to a halt.

"Rush?" she asked, happily surprised. There was a pause, before she heard a shuffling from one of the nearby cells, and then saw a glimmer through the space on the door.

"Is that Molly?" He sounded halfway between surprised, startled, and disbelieving, before laughing. "It _is_! How in Byrus' name did you even get out here?"

"Long story," she replied, smile just a tad wobbly, before glaring at the keypad, and then at her bayard—which she hadn't realized she was holding until then. _Okay seriously, how is this thing supposed to work?_ Red did something of a mental sigh, before pushing an idea that vaguely translating as imagining the arrow was there.

Well…it was something, at least. The object took its bow-shape seconds later, and she took a few steps back from the door. "I'm gonna try something," she warned, before thinking back on how Prince Aikka used his bow. She felt a little silly in just pretending the arrow was there—but only for a second, because the next thing she knew, she felt a slight weight on her hand, in the form of a plasmatic red arrow. _Huh._

Pulling it back took a little more effort than she thought it would, but there wasn't much time between figuring that out and a broken console.

The door was practically thrown sideways, which didn't match up with how nonchalantly Rush stepped out, stretching. "Ahh…it was pretty cramped in there, so it's nice to be able to get out of it!"

Eva gave him a small chuckle but otherwise didn't reply, her eyes wandering to the other doors. There were others from Alwas here too, and then some. So many racers...so many broken dreams and wishes. She felt a pang of sorrow, and her heart went out for them and their lost opportunities.

She may have wanted to win, and was more than willing to take them out to do it, but…it all got ripped away from them, and now they were impossibly-far from home to boot.

She almost didn't notice that Stan had come after her as she was musing to herself, until she'd heard him saying "Think there'd be some sort of override switch up there?"

 _"Maybe?"_ Koji sounded dubious. _"I'll check. In the meantime—he should be at the end of the hall on the next floor down."_

"Jailbreak and a rescue mission rolled into one thing, eh?" Rush nodded. "I'll get everyone else out. You two go find your friend. But just so you know, I think the warden's down there." His tone lowered toward the end. "I think he knew you were coming."

"There it is," Stan muttered, coinciding with a _"Oh great,"_ from Jordan.

"I think we can handle one guy," Eva said, turning toward the stairway.

The last floor was lit in the same purple as the other floors, moreso given the lack of skylights, but the first thing she heard was "So, the _prestigious_ paladins finally grace me with their presence." The source of the voice was at the end of the hall, with two sentries. "You've all caused a lot of trouble for me."

"Have we?" Stan sounded partway between confused and disinterested. "I'm pretty sure we haven't met."

The Galran sputtered a bit angrily, while Eva stared hard at him for a few seconds. Then it hit her. "He was there when we left Alwas the first time," she hissed. Stan glanced sideways at her, then at him again, simultaneously with Red providing a name—and the Galran lunging at them, while both sentries fired their blasters.

They both ducked out the way in time, with Eva focusing on the two robots. The first shot blew an arm clean off of one of them, and the second sent it down. The other robot went down on the first shot.

As for Lirax, he went down in maybe seven seconds after Stan hit him over the head with his bayard. Eva winced at the sound, though the low groan that followed indicated that the Galra was otherwise okay, if maybe unconscious.

"Well, that was sad," Stan muttered, before asking "Koji, any luck with that override switch?"

 _"Uh, just one second…there!"_

An alarm went off for three seconds before every door in the hallway slid open, and an even shorter pause before there was a veritable stampede of the now-former captives rushing to get out. Eva didn't waste any time in going against the tide, ignoring Stan's protest. "Rick? Rick, we're…here?" She trailed off in a whisper at seeing the empty cell.

"He's not in there?" Stan sounded confused.

"No, he's—is there anywhere else in the building they might be?"

 _"There isn't."_ Koji's words were clipped. _"E-Eva, I think—I think Rick might've been part of the group that was moved out of this base before we got here. We missed them by ten minutes."_

" _What_?" she exclaimed, voice cracking slightly. "But that's not—he was _right here_ …"

There was a small, forced-sounding cough from somewhere behind her. "Eva, c'mon," Stan said. "We better make sure everyone else gets out of here okay."

She looked back at the empty cell for a few seconds longer, before sighing. "Okay…but do we know where he might be now?" she asked.

 _"I'll check, but—"_

She didn't think much when she heard the footsteps behind her, first thinking it was just a prisoner who came back to see why they were still there.

She turned to direct whoever it was to follow the others; they were on a time limit, no matter how easy this was—and promptly felt her heart shoot up into her throat from sheer _fear_.

* * *

He hadn't noticed the last remaining prisoner there, since they blended into the shadows. He was too preoccupied making sure there was no sentries coming to hurt and/or wrangle the released prisoners.

What Stan _did_ notice was how fast Eva had gone blank-faced at seeing them. It was downright scary how all the emotion just slid off her expression. But only for a few seconds, because then something in her expression twitched—and then she _lunged_ , swinging the bayard like it was a hammer instead of a bow.

The suddenness of it almost didn't leave Stan enough time to react, moving to get between them. "Eva, what the hell are you doing that for?!" She didn't answer, instead shooting an arrow off this time. The alien was able to get out of the way, thankfully. Whoever they were, their reflexes were insanely fast.

Completely matte-black save for a white mask-like face, Stan vaguely recognized them, so they had to be from Alwas. Creepy fellow, but who was Stan to judge? The outfit they were wearing though…it didn't look like the one they were wearing while in the races. Stan shoved the thought to the back of his head as Eva got off another shot.

Creepy or not, it didn't explain why Eva suddenly seemed hellbent on trying to _kill them_. He grabbed her by the arm, but all that got as a response was for her to shove him hard enough to make him stumble. "Stay out of my way!" she spat, the sheer hatred in her voice catching Stan off-guard. "I have to get rid of that _thing_!"

 _Well that's never a good thing to hear._

The alien was making some arm movements as they dodged, and even Stan can recognize the universal signs for _'Stop'_ and…' _behind you_?'

He didn't even register what happened until a few seconds _after_ it happened, only that he heard an abrupt choked sound from Eva, as well as something wet that _did not sound good_ —and then the Galra saying "And that's why you don't take your eyes off your opponent," as the purple-colored, blood-streaked blade vanished.

To the side, the Phil ( _now_ he recognized him) went completely rigid, hands reaching out as if to catch Eva despite that fact she was trying to hurt him. Numb horror now radiating from Yellow snapping Stan out of it to go to do _something_.

His first instinct was to check on Eva, who'd dropped like a rock now, but he had to dive out of the way of a sideways sweep of the sword.

"What did I just say?" the Galran taunted, lunging again. "I was expecting you to be smarter, or at least have more fight in you than whatever _that_ pathetic display was." The swing coupled with the emphasized word was way too close for comfort, enough for him to notice a few strands of hair spiraling away.

Stan tried using his bayard—but all that got was an elbow to the face that sent him reeling. This guy was fast! Stan could hardly defend _himself_ , let alone fight back. He was being overwhelmed and while the Phil had moved Eva away, he had the feeling this bastard wasn't above going after them again.

They moved about the hallway, Stan trying keep himself between the Galra and Eva at all times while he tried to figure out how to get them away.

Eva was groaning in pain, he could hear it even over the clash of weapons. A swift turn that made the Galra trip a little let him see the Phil racer trying to put pressure on the _heavily-bleeding_ wound.

 _Engine oil_ — _a woman saluting goodbye_ — _an explosion_ —

Stan gasped, stumbling in an attempt to stay standing as he was kneed in the diaphragm, but another hit, this time on the back, sent him sprawling on the floor, black spots flitting across his vision now. (What had _that_ been?)

Dimly, he could hear worried voices over the comm, but it was all under the following "At least I'll have you and the other two to deliver to Lord Zarkon. The brat's better off dead anyways. Lord Zarkon was more than a little upset with her performance at Central Command."

He was grabbed by the collar of his uniform and brought face level with the Galra scum preventing him and his team from leaving. The bastard that was the catalyst for them all being in this situation.

 ** _The one who hurt Eva._**

"Consider it a mercy that she is dying by my hand. If anything, you'll be _thanking me_ — _"_

Stan didn't remember what exactly happened after that. Or couldn't, maybe. Just that some small part of him completely and utterly snapped right then.

* * *

 _"What's going on down there?"_ Allura asked, voice tense. _"Neither Stan or Eva are responding!"_

"I have no idea but I'm going down there," Jordan replied, tone icy, and Koji nodded stiltedly. What they both heard over the comms simply could not be good.

The fact that the impending-doom feeling he recognized from Sendak's siege of the castleship had reappeared cemented that.

* * *

The first alien they'd freed had come downstairs to check on them, and had only looked for a _second_ before rushing to a room at the end of the hall and coming back with an armful of bandages in hand.

Yellow was a distant, vague sense of something between _hurry_ and _slow the bleeding_ , to which Stan returned a semi-hysterical _no kidding_.

He couldn't be entirely sure but he was _pretty sure_ being impaled wasn't good for one's health, and Eva looked like she was halfway to being unconscious already, despite the alien's urging to stay awake.

The amount of blood covering the floor definitely did not bode well.

He didn't know what to do anymore at this point. Despite the Phil's obviously-rising panic, despite the other aliens hurried whispers and glances at him to give direction, _he didn't know what to do_.

The bandages were soaking through and Stan went to touch the wound and saw a small splotch of orange liquid splattered on his hands.

He was staring and—

 _SMACK_.

Stan blinked in shock as his head was bent downward from the slap he received from the Phil, who was clearly at the end of his patience.

"The Lion—we need to go to the Red Lion," He was able to blurt that out, and with quick nod the tall racer picked up Eva keeping her close to them as they quickly walked off.

(Eva was staying quiet; was that shock? Never mind the fact that she just looked _confused_ by all of this.)

(He was pretty sure that wasn't a good sign.)

The visible and audible shock/horror from the ex-prisoners was something half-lost in the haze, superseded by a blazing sort of fear that wasn't, _couldn't be_ from the Yellow Lion.

The Byrusian went right to clearing a path for them, shouting for everyone else to clear a path to let them outside—and that was when the other two found them.

Jordan screamed something incomprehensible, running after the Phil, who was heading right for where Red was crouched with his ramp down already.

A touch on his shoulder made him jump, and he looked up to see Koji looking at him, face ashen with a look that was a clear-enough question in itself. The stare was returned, for a few drawn-out moments, and he thought he saw a morbid sort of recognition cross Koji's face before he looked away.

Stan couldn't remember what he did, but he _was_ able to remember the sound.

And the should've-been-inconsequential detail that Galran blood was orange in color.

(It was a lot brighter than the red smeared over his wrists—)

He at least made it to the edge of the cliff the three Lions were on before being sick.

* * *

She should have seen it coming. It had been too easy, all of them coming back together again, Shiro's druid-wound notwithstanding. Allura had felt her blood freeze when Red himself had all but voicelessly screamed at her to have a pod ready for his Paladin.

Though she hadn't seen why herself yet, she could tell by the Red Lion's hollow relief that they'd nearly been too late.

Allura took a deep, shuddering breath, banishing those thoughts. _What matters is that she's alive._ _She'll be alright._

Coran was working with a few of the more knowledgeable freed captives to work out just what they were going to do with all of them. They didn't have _nearly_ enough shuttles to send all of them home, after all—and a majority of them had no knowledge of anything outside of their own galaxy.

Of course, that was saying nothing about how much of a headache getting through the blockade on their galaxy would be.

If anything, it would likely be phoebs before they could even _start_ going through, if the restrictions were still as tight as they had been ten-thousand decaphoebs ago.

Allura looked up slightly when she heard a small cough from behind her. "Some good news, princess," Coran started. "The Pokitaran—Aihe? A cousin of hers has some connections that can help the ones whose homeworlds are behind the blockade get home. It would seem that there _are_ some gaps in the system." He chuckled faintly, humorlessly. Those same gaps were how this all began, no doubt. "We just have to bring them to a drop point not too far from here."

She sighed. "That's a relief." As heartening as it was for the castle to have _some_ life to it again, even with their new supplies, they wouldn't have enough to support an extended population for more than two phoebs. Then she frowned. "Have you seen Stan or Koji anywhere?"

"Well…" Coran hesitated, before saying "Last I knew, Stan was still holed up in his room. I think Koji might've gone to check on him again."

There was a lengthy pause. "Coran, would it be possible to shift the infirmary's priority to Eva?"

"Well, yes, though it'd mean Shiro won't be back up for another quintant…" Realization crossed his face then. "Ah, you have a point there. The main console should have the option in there."

"Thank you. I'll do that—and I know this is a lot to ask, but I think it's been a while since any of our guests had a decent meal."

Coran grinned, saluting. "Leave that to me, princess!"

Jordan was there, sitting on the floor and looking blankly at one of the two active pods, but that didn't surprise Allura much; he'd been beside himself with worry last she'd seen him. He didn't seem to notice her come into the room, either—not until she heard herself gasp with dismay at seeing Eva.

She had been left in the armor's undersuit, only because there simply hadn't been time, and while the fabric hid the injury itself from view, she could see the tear in it. The armored pieces were scattered loosely around the pod. She'd been painfully aware that their Red Paladin was young, but this just made it even more obvious.

She looked smaller in there, somehow, especially compared to Shiro, who was in the next one over.

Then Allura heard a quiet, dazed-sounding "When's she gonna be up?" from Jordan.

"By tonight, likely after dinner," she replied, forcing her gaze to turn to him. At seeing his startled expression, she added "I thought it might do us all some good to have her awake again sooner than later."

The gaze was kept steady for a few long ticks, before he looked away, with a muttered "Thanks." Allura felt the Blue Lion paying some mind to the exchange, mostly uncertain, but also thankful.

Now for the reason she was somewhat glad he was still here. "Have you seen Stan at all?"

"No." Jordan tensed slightly, before quietly adding "I dunno what happened down there, but…whatever it is, he's been holed up in his room for a few hours now. I think—I know Koji's gone to check on him twice already, but…"

Aihe had explained some of their former situation as well, and it just so happened to tie into that of the Paladins', in that the warden, Lirax, was not only formerly a commander, but had also been the one to raid Alwas in search of the Red Lion in the first place.

The Pokitaran's use of past-tense, alongside the Yellow Lion's uncertain brevity regarding the situation, had been enough of an explanation as to what had happened. But when Coran had gone back there to ensure no one had been left behind, he'd reported injuries not matching up with the form the yellow bayard took—a mixture of blunt and cutting.

And that just didn't make any sense.

Allura felt a slight mental nudge from the Blue Lion, allowing her to notice the sideways questioning look Jordan was giving her now. "Mind if I join you for a while?" she asked.

"Not at all," he replied, turning back to the pods while she sat down. Then he said "I think—I don't think it really hit me until now. How dangerous this all is for us." It was Allura's turn to look sideways at him, while he went on "I mean, the closest me and M—Eva got to getting hurt was when we had to go up against the Crog during the race, but this…" He stopped, taking a deep breath. "We didn't get actually hurt then. Or at all, during the whole thing."

It was after briefly wondering what in the world a _Crog_ was that Allura suddenly felt startled, a realization hitting her with the force of a charging klanmürl.

Jordan didn't look much older than Eva.

She'd always overlooked it somehow—perhaps it was simply that he had some military training that made him seem older—but seeing him like this? So vulnerable and open? It was like a mask had been ripped off.

Allura looked down, unsure what to say in response to that. It never failed to hurt her heart seeing children forced into war.

* * *

Everything had started blurring together maybe an hour ago, but only because there had been so much to do, and it was only _now_ that Koji found himself with some free time.

The first thing he'd done was stop by the infirmary, and he'd immediately had to force away the memory of seeing the injury. It was an ugly reminder that the situation they were in meant people were going to go out of their way in trying to kill them, and being a kid didn't exclude Eva from it.

Jordan hadn't moved from his spot, though Koji had sort of expected that. What he _hadn't_ expected was for there to be someone else in there. More specifically, the last person they raced on Alwas. "This is some impressive technology you have here," he was saying. "I daresay it puts what they have on Alwas to shame." The large alien was subdued in his admiration, though.

Koji, despite having never actually met him, felt that was not a normal state for him. It just felt...wrong, somehow, for him to be subdued and quiet, compared to the first impression they'd gotten of him during their team's race against him.

"Yeah," Jordan muttered, noticing Koji standing in the doorway after a moment and adding "There's still another hour or two."

Koji nodded, hesitating before asking "You don't—know what happened down there, do you?"

The pilot, Rush if he remembered right, sighed. "I wasn't there. You might have better luck trying to ask Spirit. He was still down there when it happened."

"Okay…do you know where he is?"

"The last I saw, he was heading down one of halls away from where everyone is staying. I'm not familiar with this ship's layout."

"It's alright. We're still learning it too." The guest wing they were using was right between the hangars for the Red and Green Lions. Green herself had been somewhat of a background presence since they came back to the ship, at least until now; she pushed the idea of checking Red's hangar.

It was when he got there that the detail of Spirit being the Phil racer came up. On one hand, it meant he didn't have to worry, since they were friendly to humans. On the other, it meant communication might be a problem. But he wouldn't know until he tried.

He was maybe halfway to the Lion when he saw that one of Spirit's hands was against one of Red's paws, and that the metal under it seemed to be shimmering slightly. There was some surprised realization from Green, implying some sort of telepathy. _Well, that…might make things easier._

(Koji tried not to stare at the blood staining Spirit's clothes, and tried not to think that the Phil was _not_ looking too friendly at the moment; his feathers were standing on end and rustling slightly, reminding Koji of a cornered bird.)

"Uh, excuse me?" he started, which had Spirit turn to look at him, the feathers smoothing out just a bit once he saw Koji. "If—if you don't mind me asking, what happened back there in the base? Or—what happened to Eva?"

The most Koji had gotten out of Stan earlier, before he'd stopped answering anything he said, was that she'd sort of…freaked out, and attacked Spirit.

For a few moments, Spirit stared at him, before looking up at the Red Lion, and then slowly holding a hand out.

In retrospect, Koji really hadn't been too sure how the explanation would work, given that his only example of telepathy was the Green Lion.

One second he was feeling something that could've maybe been described as a mental numbness, and then it was like he was both somewhere and _someone_ else altogether. Specifically, like he was looking through Spirit's own eyes.

The fear crossing Eva's face before it became worryingly blank. Her ferocious attempts at attacking Spirit, and Stan trying to stop her.

Her only stopping as Lirax stabbed her through.

Spirit desperately trying to stop the bleeding. Sounds of fighting in the background.

Recognition, fear, and guilt saturated the memories so strongly that it almost had Koji being sick then, with Green then providing a thin barrier with a faint, worried growl.

"B-But—why would she do that?" he managed to ask. Another load of memories came after another hesitant pause, somehow worse than the last, even with Green stifling the emotions this time.

It started as rushing over a star-racing track, definitely on Earth somewhere, with a star-racer just ahead—blinking in reflex when a few drops of oil flashed by, having come from the star-racer—and then the pilot frantically waving at him to get away.

The feelings of genuine confusion morphing into fearful panic, before finally settling into sorrow and regret.

Koji flinched as he recognized the pilot, too. Hollow realization came over from Green, as a memory of his own was brought to the forefront of his mind: _two preteens watching a TV screen at home with awe, with Miguel cursing as he fiddled with the connection. Awe turning to horror, and the live broadcast cutting to a technical difficulties screen._

Something colder settled in him, witnessing someone's death up close and personal. It wasn't like Haxus—he wasn't able to keep back the shudder at that comparison—because that…that had been a fight. What happened at the end of it had been unintentional, yes, but still a fight.

This had been nothing more than a horrible coincidence. One that Spirit still felt raw over.

He remembered to stutter out a thanks, before backing away and starting back down the hallway, Spirit's gaze feeling heavy on the back of his head.

Eva had mentioned before they'd left Arus that Don was her father, but none of them had thought then to bring up the question of who her mother was.

Now Koji was just wondering how in the world he hadn't even _started_ to think that the one pilot who shared the surname could've been her.

First, there was something else he had to do. Or at least attempt…again.

The door didn't budge this time either, so he just opted for sitting down and leaning back against it. "Hey, Stan?" he started. "You don't have to talk, _but I need to talk to you._ This—this is major. And suddenly a lot of things make sense now and I have no idea why we hadn't made this connection sooner—and I'm rambling." Koji brought his head into his hands and sighed, taking a breath to try calming down. The emotions of today mixing with Spirit's was making him feel ill.

"Eva Wei, Don Wei, _Maya Wei_ —Stan, she's Maya's _daughter._ " Shaky breath and continue, _and don't forget to breathe_. "That's why she went nuts down there. I think she blames Spirit for her mom dying. I can see how too, from our perspective it looked like sabotage a-and it wasn't! That scandal that came from that all boiling down to an _engine leak_.

"Eva—she must have spent all the time thinking that…" He trailed off when Green prickled, voicelessly imparting a thought of her own on it all.

(The amount of sense it would make was _chilling_.)

There was a ten-second silence before a strangled "Oh," came from the other side of the door, which was what prompted Koji to find the willpower to keep going.

"And do you want to know the worst part? I think she might've been there when it happened, too." What felt like a few minutes dragged by, before Koji sighed, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. He added with a little forced hope in his voice, "Eva should be up soon. And…and you can't stay in there forever, either. It doesn't work."

There was a quiet shuffling sound, followed by the door opening. "I guess you'd know that, huh," Stan muttered, voice quiet and rough-sounding. His eyes were slightly red and he overall looked disheveled, but given everything, Koji couldn't blame him.

"Kind of," he replied, standing up. "Look, I don't—I don't know what happened down there, but whatever it was…she's gonna be okay. There's still at least another hour, and we're definitely going to reach the drop point for everyone else first. But—but _she'll be okay_."

 _We'll be okay,_ he wanted to add, but the words didn't come. Stan gave him a long look, before saying "At least that makes one of us," and looking down again.

Koji almost hadn't heard him with how quietly he'd said it, and carefully replied with "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"I should've paid more attention to Lirax." For a moment, Stan looked like he was going to duck into his room again, but he didn't. "If I hadn't—"

"Hold on," Koji interrupted, moving to put a hand on his shoulder. This was…familiar, in a way not entirely unwelcome. "I don't—I don't think there was anything you could've done to keep that from happening. If you'd done that, who knows what she would've done to Spirit?"

Stan froze for a few seconds, before sighing shakily. "As…as much as I hate calling that a _good_ point…"

"Yeah," Koji mumbled, before coming up with a subject-change. "C'mon—we should figure out where Coran put our tools from Alwas."

"Good idea." Stan paused, face darkening a fraction again, before saying "The orange needs to go too."

 _What?_ "Okay, the purple's a given , but why the—?"

" _It needs to go_."

The intensity with which he'd said that made Koji flinch a little, and he nodded a few times. "Okay, okay. Complete re-painting. Maybe…red and blue?"

"Red and—" Stan stopped, blinking a few times, before smiling, alongside an amused _ah-ha_ feeling from Green. "Yeah. I think that'd work."

* * *

Coran paused to crack his back a bit as he finished cleaning up what was left of the dishes. Many of their previous guests had been grateful for the food and had happily thanked him. It was nice to be thanked once in a while, made everything worth it. No gift, no favor, no debt repaid could ever measure up to a genuine thank-you.

Putting the last of the dishes away, he went to start on making dinner for his Princess and her Paladins. Today had been… _exhausting_ , to put it mildly. Coran was sure everyone would be famished and need a hardy meal to get some of their stamina back and rest well for the cycle.

One would think that, after all these years of war, he would have grown immune to seeing his friends hurt, but it seems that every new grievous injury just makes his heart seize more.

It seemed they got younger every time.

Humming to himself he didn't pay much mind to the footsteps entering the kitchen until he heard someone clearing their throat.

He paused, turning to see Koji and Stan (part of the lingering tenseness wore away at seeing the latter) their armor since exchanged for nightwear.

"Good evening to you lads, what bring you to my corner of the castle?" he greeted.

"Well, we were hoping you knew where you put some of the things you got from Alwas," Koji explained. "Me and Stan were hoping to take a crack at the _Arrow_ again tomorrow."

Coran thought on that for a moment. "Most of the things from the first floor are on the floor, though the box of…paints, I think? Those should be next to the wooden box with the broken latch. We didn't get much of a chance to organize it all very much." Coran smiled sheepishly at the boys.

"…box?" Stan sounded confused.

"Oh yes, a strange little thing. Reminded me of Allura's jewelry box, only it had no jewelry, just a photo." Coran turned back to his tasks, deciding on some of the spices acquired from their brief stop on Alwas. He hoped they would enjoy dinner tonight. Tonight's dinner would likely be some trial-and-error on his part, but they deserved something at least somewhat familiar.

Another recollection on the photo came to him, having him add, "Now, I might be wrong, but I _think_ Eva's in it."

A beat of silence, before Stan asked "Is the photo still in there?"

* * *

The first thing she felt was cold. Not the winter-night type of cold, either—more like an all-encompassing cold that superseded everything else.

Then she heard a hissing sound, followed by her ears popping, and then the next thing she knew someone had caught her when she'd slumped forward. "E-Eva?" she heard Jordan ask tentatively.

"Jordan?" she mumbled, blinking a few times before backing out of the grip, stumbling a bit when she bumped into something. "What…what happened?"

Jordan stared at her, face slightly pale, before asking "You don't remember?" instead of answering the question. _Remember? Remember what?_

Her head felt fuzzy, and her whole body was sore, like she'd slept for too long and still woke up sleepy. A chinking sound reached her ears and she looked down to pieces of her armor littering the floor around…one of the healing pods?

Then it came back like a slap to the head, at the same time as Red mentally tackling her.

The attempted rescue mission. Rick not being there. _Spirit_. And—

"Wh-Whoa, hey! They're—they're not here. We dropped them off on some outpost on…well, the outpost was named Astera. They're all gonna get home. Maybe not soon, but eventually."

Eva stared at him for a few seconds, before saying "Oh." On one hand, she was relieved on a deeper level than she thought humanly possible. On the other…the _guilt_ was something between uncalled-for and wholly-expected.

Spirit had nothing to do with her mother's crash.

It had been an _engine leak_.

That something so small had been what had done in such a famous star-racer pilot was almost unbelievable. Almost too cruel to be true, and yet it was.

Eva numbly recognized the room's layout once she started to come back to herself, made note of Shiro still being in a pod, and…and the second pod slipping back into its hatch in the floor, now that she wasn't standing in it. _Why had she been in it?_

"Jordan, what—did something else happen?"

"I…uh…"

He didn't get to answer, since Allura walked by then and saw her. "Oh, you're awake!" she exclaimed, her shoulders slumping slightly in a way that enunciated the pure relief in her voice.

"Well, yeah, but _what_ —"

Allura didn't let her finish, coming forward to grab her by the arm and start leading her down the hall, saying "Come with me for a dobosh. There's something I wanted to give you."

"Okay," she muttered, now directing a blatant feeling of confusion at Red.

The Lion's presence went stilted, hovering between uncertainty and sheer relief, before suggesting that they go for a flight tomorrow and going distant, otherwise _also not answering her question_.

The hallway they ended up in wasn't one Eva had been down before, ending with a bedroom that was definitely bigger than the ones she and the others had. It didn't really occur to her that it was Allura's until the princess opened a closet and started rifling through it, throwing various articles of clothing onto the bed while muttering "Now where did I put it?"

There was a vanity up against one wall, and the bed was definitely a lot bigger. The whole room was a weird shade of iridescent blue, and there was a mirror just like the one in Eva's own room. That was as much as she got to look around before she heard a "Here it is!" from Allura; the princess was holding something sunset-hued in color with a gold trim, definitely clothing of some variety. "I wasn't sure if you had anything like this in your closet, and I know this is too small for me now. Why don't you try it on?"

"Um—okay but—what happened?" Allura froze, smile slowly vanishing. "I mean…why was I in there?" she asked, suddenly feeling uncertain.

"You were…injured rather severely," was the response given. "You were in there for a few vargas. I don't know what exactly happened, though."

And that would explain why both Jordan and Red were acting the way they were. She took the piece of clothing—a nightgown by the look of it—before glancing at Allura again, who promptly turned around.

It was in working to get the top half of the undersuit off that Eva noticed the two parallel holes in it, one in the front and one in the back, but she didn't think too much of it. Not until she saw the _definitive cause for the holes_.

She heard a sharp "Oh," and didn't realize that _she'd_ been the one to say it until she heard Allura saying "Those are there to stay, unfortunately." Her eyes were still averted, but she'd turned her head enough for Eva to see that she was biting her lip. "The pods can only do so much."

It wasn't even that big of a scar, being maybe an inch-and-a-half long, and she knew for a fact that she had one on her back too.

Looking at it made her feel nauseous.

How everyone was acting made way too much sense now.

Eva quickly put on the nightgown to hide the scar from herself if for a little while…and ended up getting tangled in the fabric in her haste, to the point where Allura had to help her remove it and put it back on.

The nightgown was a little too big, in that it was loose around her shoulders and went all the way to her ankles, but whatever it was made of was _soft_. "I-It's—this is nice," she managed to say, prompting Allura to look.

The princess looked solemn for a moment, before a genuine smile replaced it. "It does look nice," she agreed, smiling gently. "Now, come on. I'm sure the others will be happy to see you."

Jordan was in the dining hall with Coran, with the former poking at a plate of what was probably the last of the preserved fish and vegetables from Arus. Coran saw them first, with a greeting of "There you are, Number Five!" which had the added effect of making Jordan jump straight into standing, almost falling over with how fast he turned.

"Uh—Eva, you look—nice?" he stuttered out, face flushing slightly. There was a stifled chuckle from Allura, while Eva gave him a flat look.

Allura looked around, frowning slightly, before asking "Where are the other two?"

"Right here," Koji replied, with both him and Stan coming from one of the other halls. Koji promptly stopped mid-step, stammering out "O-Oh, Eva! You're—you're up!" He took a few steps forward before stopping again, looking uncertain all of a sudden, before asking "H-How are you feeling?"

"A bit numb," she replied, though the words came out more tonelessly than she wanted them to. Koji bit his lip, looking sideways for a second at Stan, who'd gone completely stiff.

He'd been there when it happened, and Eva looked at the floor when that memory came back up. Now that the shock of seeing the aftermath of it was starting to wear out, it was finally hitting her that _she almost died back there_.

"Guys, I—I'm sorry," she mumbled, voice hitching slightly. "I just—if I hadn't—"

"H-Hey," Jordan stuttered slightly. "Eva, it's not—it wasn't your fault th-that…" He trailed off, alongside Eva hearing approaching footsteps.

Stan looked like he was going to say something before looking nothing short of uncertain, before glancing at something he was holding in his hand that looked like a photograph. "You should have this," he said, holding it out to her face-down. She took it almost hesitantly, and turned it over.

Eva wasn't sure how long she stared at the photo, just that it was long enough for her chest to start protesting with a lack-of-oxygen ache. It wasn't the photo she'd held onto for so long, because that never left her room.

 _Couldn't be_ , because this one had her mother in it. And there was only one other person who could possibly have had this in the first place. Which would mean…

 _He didn't forget._

She heard voices, from both sides and from behind her, but nothing registered, not until she suddenly felt something warm around her, and it took her a few seconds to realize that someone was hugging her. When was the last time someone had done that…?

She may as well have physically felt something in her break then, because then it felt like she just couldn't get herself to _not_ cry at that point. It was all she could do to make sure she kept holding the photograph so that it wouldn't be damaged now—and then she heard a voice from right over her head.

"I got you, d-don't worry." Stan, Stan was the one hugging her, and he sounded like he was crying too. "I'm sorry I couldn't—I didn't—do much before. Today…it's not gonna happen again. Alright?"

Slowly she felt other arms wrap around her. "We're here for you partner, you…you don't have to hide anything anymore." Jordan, he sounded like he was getting emotional now too.

And a third. "We're here for each other now, like we should've been during the race. Like a team. We aren't going anywhere." Koji.

Slimmer hands covered the one she had over the photo.

"I know it's hard to grieve, especially when you want everything to go back to how it used to be. But some things…some things, there's no going back from. But that doesn't mean our future is hopeless. We will make a better future. For all our families." Allura.

A hand on her head, firm and gentle. "We may not have all wanted each other around in the beginning, but we're learning the ropes. We _will_ pull through, and we are not leaving _anyone_ behind!" Coran.

Red was a solid mental presence through it all, and beyond him was nothing but _sincerity_ from the three she was tied to now that were here—the fourth was there, beyond a haze, but she had no doubt that Shiro would be with them all the way through this too.

She finally knew the truth behind what had happened, and while she wasn't ready to sort through that tangle of emotions just yet…she wasn't alone this time.

It was all she could do to say "Thank you."

* * *

A huge thanks to my beta, since without them I'd probably still be stuck on this.

This chapter is something of a milestone for me, as it's one I've had planned out since I first started the fic back in ye olde days of '17. Now that I'm past it, there's going to be a short interlude chapter… _and then onto Arc II_!

And it would seem that updates here shall continue, according to the poll! Just, ah. Do keep in mind that my semi-regular content updates might now and then have a slippage and result in temporarily-duplicated chapters. Just PM me if that ever happens.


	17. Interlude I

"Just to make sure I understand all of this," Horace began, trying to not let his irritation at the matter show. " _Two more_ L-vessels crashed on Elpis."

 _"Yes sir."_

"And then you lost them."

Commander Delmas at least had the decency to look ashamed for a moment. _"Yes sir. We're still looking into the security breach."_

"Good. Were you at least able to learn anything about the one you were able to bring to the base for study?"

 _"Not much. Nothing we have here was able to get it open, and we've cross-referenced every single dictionary, both human languages and alien languages, but there's nothing even remotely like the symbol that was on the green one. But one thing we_ did _find out was that…well, that the material they made of doesn't exist."_

"Come again?"

 _"Or, well,"_ she stuttered slightly. _"It does exist, since it's what the L-vessels are made of, but it's nothing on the periodic table, traditional_ or _extended. The research team wasn't able to figure out what they run on, either. The best guess we have is that they're solar-powered, and even then, there are doubts."_

That was…interesting, to say the least. "What about their pilots? Anything on species?"

She smiled faintly. _"About that. The base's security footage didn't have anything, unfortunately—they got set on loop somehow—but an inquiry into the nearby town was another story."_

An image came up, clearly from the security camera of a simple convenience store, but it was who was shown in the image that had the president's attention. He quickly brought up the file on the Great Race, just to make sure he wasn't simply seeing things.

He wasn't.

"Not a stunt I'd expect from two mere mechanics," he mused. It was a strange mixture of irritation and relief, the former because they'd impeded on government business, and the latter because if two of the team were alive, it meant the others might be as well.

Then again, he'd already had that suspicion when the team he'd gotten cleared to send out to Alwas had reported no sign of them at all whatsoever. Not even their star-racer could be found, whole or in fragments. (The second one, anyways. The first was located in a state of beyond repair in a junkyard on the planet.)

If he had to guess, one of the others had been piloting the red one away from Alwas then. Horace understood why they hadn't come back to Earth then, or simply landed on Elpis—not with the unknown vessel tailing them.

But why not this most recent incident?

* * *

It was unfortunate, what had befallen Captain Lirax, but perhaps he was better off having perished, than living to report yet another failure involving the paladins. The same could not be said of the two subordinates of his. They would be punished, upon their return to Central Command.

But perhaps it was not a complete loss, the druid mused, gazing at the two vials now held in hand. One contained a few strands of hair, and the other a small sample of blood.

* * *

She'd waited until both Lance and Hunk were guaranteed out-cold before opening up her laptop. Katie grimaced when she saw the email from her mom, which she decided could wait until after she was finished drafting the first outgoing piece.

It had taken a bit of nosing around on Commander Delmas' computer in the middle of the night—a perk of being in charge of all military operations on Elpis was that her computer had a signal strong enough to reach the extended internet—but she'd found out a little more information on who Stan had wanted her to contact.

A little more information than she'd expected, if she had to be honest with herself, along with an honest incentive to plant a little computer-worm of her making into the system.

The surprising part to the information was that it turned out that the person Stan wanted her to contact doubled as his and his adoptive brother's employer and foster parent.

That wasn't all, either.

Katie wasn't sure what the Great Race of Ōban was supposed to be, but the level of security on things even _mentioning_ it put the clearance blocks on the Kerberos Mission to _shame_.

And that by itself piqued her interest.

* * *

He'd resigned himself to it, when the final thread had snapped after the fifth round. His pawn had been chosen, and the centuries he'd spent nudging fate in the necessary directions had all been for naught.

It mattered little, in the end, upon having reason to reflect further on the nature of the Lions. In simply being present on Alwas, the Red Lion had provided him an alternative.

One that needn't require a pawn at all, but an accomplice.

He simply had to be patient for a while longer, and let the victor become complacent.

It would not take long for that to happen.

* * *

She wasn't sure who'd suggested it, in the end, but all of them sans Shiro were gathered on the bridge, in the midst of a haphazard mess of blankets and pillows taken from various empty bedrooms. Allura and Coran had gone along with it, curious about the human concept that was a sleepover.

Eva also wasn't sure what exactly woke her up just then.

She sat up, blinking sleep out of her eyes, before looking around. It definitely wasn't a blanket being stolen from her—by the look of it Koji had taken one of the ones Stan had been using this time. They and Allura were off to the left, as were the mice.

It wasn't a sound, since she'd since figured out how to filter out Coran's whistly snoring; he was somewhere by the main console, _just in case_.

Then she noticed the lack of another sound she'd gotten used to, and looked further to the right to see Jordan staring up vacantly at the crystal. "Can't sleep either?" she asked quietly.

He started a bit, visibly biting back an exclamation. "Eva? Why're you up?"

She paused, thinking it over for a minute, before saying "I'm not really sure. It—it almost feels like I…missed something. And you?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Just can't sleep, I guess. I've been in and out for the past two hours." He looked back to the ceiling, expression going blank, before making a small, short sound not unlike a nervous chuckle. "Actually, now that you mention it? I kinda—kinda feel like I just…dodged a bullet, or something."

She frowned at him. "Really?"

"Y-Yeah." He shuddered a little. "Don't know why."

Red had gone pensive in the back of her head, like he was pondering something, but when she directed a query at him, he shrugged it off before suggesting trying to go back to sleep. It wasn't a bad idea, either.

"You doing okay now?" She almost missed Jordan's question, which she had to think about.

Yes, she felt better after that emotional outburst, but _okay_ would be a stretch. She'd spent the last ten years thinking she _knew_ something, and then found out she was wrong. Her memories of what happened between her and Spirit before…then, were hazy at best, and everything after that was a painful blur, but enough things were clear.

Rick hadn't been there when they'd gotten back, and that was that. They'd just have to keep looking, for both him and her father. And Prince Aikka, too—Allura had mentioned seeing G'dar on Alwas before she'd fallen asleep.

"I will be," she decided, stifling a yawn. To the side, Koji mumbled something incomprehensible, which got a quick smile; she hadn't taken him for one to sleep-talk. "We better get back to sleep. Shiro's gonna be up tomorrow morning, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Jordan paused, before saying, "Hey, uh, Eva? I was wondering if—" He stopped when she looked over at him again, puzzled, face flushing faintly before saying "Never mind," and turning away with a quiet "Night."

She looked at him for a few seconds longer before echoing the statement, the sensation that had first awoken her now forgotten.

Though something else hit her seconds after, eliciting a quiet "Oh no," from her.

"What?" Jordan asked, apprehensive.

"How…how are we going to tell Shiro what happened today?"


End file.
